Staff Report
DJ Dudley scored 20 points and Louisiana Tech used an unfamiliar method in picking up its first road win of the season, defeating UTEP 69-59 at the Don Haskins Center Wednesday night.
Tech (12-8, 5-4), which has made a living recently falling behind and playing catch up, actually flipped the script against the Miners.
The Bulldogs used a 20-5 run late in the first half to build a 14-point lead and then held off a valiant Miners rally down the stretch.
Dudley hit four three-pointers in his 39 minutes of action.
“We practice hard every day,” said Dudley. “My teammates believe in me. My coaches believe in me. And most importantly, I believe in myself. We knew tonight was going to be a dog fight.”
Tech led 36-27 at the half and kept the advantage between eight and 13 points for most of the final 20 minutes of play.
However, UTEP made a late run. Trailing 61-50 with just over six minutes to play, the Miners Kaseem Watson scored six straight points in a 30 second stretch to close the deficit to 61-48 with 4:24 remaining.
But Tech held UTEP without a field goal the rest of the way while the Bulldogs converted 8-of-10 free throws to seal the win, it’s first on the road in eight tries.
“We knew they were going to be physical coming into the game,” said Dudley. “They made a run right before halftime and Coach Hester told us every good team is going to make a run. We just couldn’t give them the easy stuff.”
Tech held UTEP to 31 percent (17-54) shooting for the game, including just 6-of-24 in the second half. The Bulldogs also outrebounded the Miners 41-29.
In addition to Dudley’s performance, Scooter Williams scored 14 and Avery Thomas added 12 points and 11 rebounds.
UTEP was led by Elijah Jones with 25 and Watson with 20.
