HOUSTON – Louisiana Tech picked up its 20th victory of the season and remained tied for second in the West Division standings after defeating Rice, 83-79, on Thursday night inside Tudor Fieldhouse.
LA Tech (20-7, 11-4 C-USA) led for almost 37 minutes of the game, but was never able to pull away from one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country in Rice (14-13, 6-9 C-USA) who connected on 11 triples.
The Bulldogs grabbed their largest lead of the game on the opening possession of the second half when
Keaston Willis drained the team's first three-pointer of the contest to make it 37-27.
The Owls stayed within striking distance though, slicing the deficit down to two at 50-48 after Travis Evee's fifth three-pointer of the game with 12:48 to go.
Kenneth Lofton, Jr. started to take over in response, scoring or assisting on six of the 'Dogs next eight possessions, including dishes to
Cobe Williams,
David Green and
Amorie Archibald who each buried three-pointers of their own.
Rice refused to go away, getting to within four at 70-66 to force a timeout by head coach
Eric Konkol with 3:06 left. After the teams traded turnovers, LA Tech got a big triple from the wing by Willis to push the lead back out to seven with less than two minutes to play.
From then on, the Bulldogs made 10 of their last 12 free throw attempts and got one key defensive stop at the end of the game to prevail. After holding a low-scoring first half with the 'Dogs holding a 34-27 lead, they ended up scoring 49 second-half points and needing all of them to win for the first time in Houston since 2016.
LA Tech had five players score in double figures – Lofton, Jr. (16), Archibald (14), Green (12), Williams (12) and Willis (11). The team shot 51.7 percent from the field, 41.2 percent from beyond the arc and 76.2 percent from the foul line.
Rice shot 44.6 percent from the field, getting 20 points from Carl Pierre and 19 apiece from Max Fielder and Evee.
QUOTABLES
Head coach
Eric Konkol
"We knew we were going to play a really good Rice team on its home floor. They have had some big wins at home. I thought we gave great effort and contested a number of shots. We had a total team effort with five guys in double figures. I thought our bench was really good. We knew we were going to have to score it to come away with a very good win."
"Winning 20 games is one of the goals. We feel like we have much bigger ones that we are trying to accomplish. We have talked about a standard of excellence and the team knows what that means. To win 20 games in college basketball is a great accomplishment and I am proud of the team."
NOTABLES
- LA Tech won its 20th game of the season.They have now won 20+ games in nine of the last 10 seasons.
- With the 83-79 win, LA Tech now leads the all-time series against Rice, 20-7.The Bulldogs have won five straight versus the Owls.
- LA Tech improved to 8-3 on the road this season (6-1 in C-USA road games).The Bulldogs won their first game in Tudor Fieldhouse since 2016.
- The Bulldogs remain in a tie for second in the West Division standings, improving to 11-4 in C-USA play.
- LA Tech had five players score in double-figures for the first time since its last non-conference game against Crowley's Ridge back on Dec. 22.
- The Bulldogs scored 49 second-half points.They have now scored 40+ points in nine of the 15 second halves in league play.
- Amorie Archibald made his 149th career appearance and his 133rd career start (83 straight).
- Amorie Archibald is now tied for the 13th most points scored in program history.The super senior scored 14 to give him 1,566 career points.
- Kenneth Lofton, Jr. led the Bulldogs in scoring (16) and rebounding (9) while also dishing out four assists.He has recorded at least three assists in 11 of the last 12 games.
- Keaston Willis scored 11 points, having now scored double-digit points in 10 of the last 11 games.He also made two three-pointers, giving up 77 for the season, which is tied for the fourth most in a single season in program history.
- The Bulldogs improved to 22-4 all-time when Cobe Williams scores in double figures.He had 12 points to go along with a team-high five assists (fifth time this season with 5+ assists).
UP NEXT
LA Tech heads to Denton on Saturday, Feb. 26 to face West Division leader North Texas. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on Stadium.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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