by Malcolm Butler
During his halftime interview with ESPN+ Wednesday night, Louisiana Tech head coach Talvin Hester was quick and to the point when asked about his team’s 19-point deficit against Middle Tennessee.
“Play harder. Play harder.”
Those were Hester’s words to courtside reporter Madison Kaufman and his message in the Bulldogs halftime lockerroom.
Message received.
After an opening 20 minutes that looked like anything but a team that wanted to be playing, Louisiana Tech (10-7, 3-3) responded with a furry in the second frame.
The Bulldogs scored the first seven points of the second half, slowly and methodically climbed back into the game, and gave themselves a chance down the stretch to win.
And for the second straight game, guard DJ Dudley hit the shot heard round the TAC.
Trailing 58-56 with under 10 seconds to play, Dudley pump faked a defender into the air, took one dribble to the side, and calmly sank a contested three-pointer with 4.7 seconds to play to give the Bulldogs a 59-58 lead … Tech’s first since it was 4-2.
“DJ has already hit two game winners this year so it’s just fitting that he hit a third one,” said Hester in the postgame.
Tech was 0-of-11 from the three-point line before Dudley’s make.
Following a MT timeout, the Blue Raiders inbounded the basketball against Tech full-court pressure to guard Jahvin Carter who dribbled into the frontcourt and misfired on a contested three-pointer as time expired.
The win was the second largest come-from-behind victory in Bulldog history, trailing only a 22-point comeback against Centenary in 2009.
“I just challenged them at halftime and told them it was up to them,” said Hester. “I found a group out there that fought. I am so proud of those guys. They fought like crazy. A couple of them asked to sub out and I refused to sub.
“I told them they fought to get us back in this game and they were going to stay out there and find a way to win it for us.”
Winning looked almost impossible in the first half.
Tech hit just 6-of-29 field goals and got outrebouded 29-14 in the opening 20 minutes to trail by as many as 20, including a 40-21 halftime deficit.
However, Tech connected on 15-of-29 field goals in the final 20 minutes and outrebounded MT by five after halftime.
Dudley led Tech with 19 points while Jaylen Fenner added 12 and AJ Bates scored 10. Avery Thomas pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds for the Bulldogs.
The win avenged a 37-point defeat at Middle Tennessee two weeks ago.
