Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
Both the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and Lady Techsters will open up the 2025 Conference USA Basketball Championships today.
Head coach Brooke Stoehr’s Lady Techsters will square off against No. 4 seed New Mexico State with tipoff set for 11:30 p.m. at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama.
Talvin Hester and Co. will face No. 3 seed Middle Tennessee at 8 p.m. at the same venue.
Both games can be heard on the LA Tech Radio Network with the women airing on 97.7 FM and the men on 107.5 FM.
The Lady Techsters (15-14, 8-10) and Aggies (17-14, 10-8) split their regular season series with each team winning on its home court.
Tech defeated NMSU 67-58 on January 4 in Ruston while the Aggies returned the favor two weeks ago with an 87-80 victory in Las Cruces. The Lady Techsters are led by Conference USA Freshman of the Year Paris Bradley, averaging 14.5 points per game, including 17.3 ppg in league games. Bradley was the first Lady Techsters since Erica Smith in 2002 to win the league FOY award.
NMSU is led by CUSA Player of the Year Molly Kaiser, who ranks 15th in the nation at 20.7 points per game.
The Bulldogs (20-11, 9-9) will look to try to beat Middle Tennessee for the third time this season after defeating the Blue Raiders 75-69 in Ruston and 85-74 in Murfreesboro.
Tech is led by CUSA Defensive Player of the Year Daniel Batcho, who became the first Bulldog to earn first team all-CUSA honors twice. The power forward leads LA Tech in scoring at 16.9 points per game, and currently ranks second in the country in field goal percentage (68.7), a mark that would set a program record and be third best in CUSA history.
Middle Tennessee (21-10, 11-7) is one of the hotter teams heading into the tournament, having won four of their last five games with their lone blemish being an 86-81 home loss to Liberty.
The main reason for MTSU’s success in conference was its offense. The Blue Raiders ranked No. 1 in scoring offense during league play, averaging 73.7 points per contest. They have scored 70+ points in eight straight games entering the tournament. They also rank No. 2 in field goal percentage at 44.7 percent.
Today will be a rematch of last season’s quarterfinal between LA Tech and Middle Tennessee, won by the Blue Raiders, 70-67. It is the exact same scenario in which the Bulldogs swept the season series and then faced off against MTSU in an 8 p.m. quarterfinal showdown at VBC Propst Arena.
