Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
It was a second straight heartbreaking loss on the road for Louisiana Tech as the Bulldogs fell, 78-76, to Kennesaw State on Saturday night at the KSU Convocation Center.
Trailing almost the entire game, LA Tech (13-6, 2-4 CUSA) hung around and gave itself chances down the stretch to grab its first conference road win of the season. Their last attempt was a steal with eight seconds to go and a contested three-pointer by Devin Ree to try to tie it but was off the mark.
“If you look at the game, you’ll find seven or eight plays you wish you had back,” said Tech head coach Talvin Hester. “We have to have guys step up and go get that key rebound. We had a late turnover that we should not have had. We had some unforced turnovers. We have to be able to eliminate those especially in crunch time.”
The Bulldogs kept the Owls high-powered offense in check for much of the first half but could not get much offensive rhythm of their own. LA Tech went a stretch of six straight minutes without a made field goal, allowing KSU (11-7, 3-2 CUSA) to build a seven-point lead. Contributing to that was star point guard Sean Newman Jr. sitting on the bench with his second foul.
“You have to be able to adjust when certain things happen in basketball games,” said Hester. “I looked over at AJ (Bates) and called his number. He stepped up when Sean went out with foul trouble.”
Points were coming from Daniel Batcho at the free throw line and then AJ Bates and Devin Ree combined for seven straight points to get to within two. The deficit would ultimately be three, 33-30, at halftime.
KSU’s Bradan Lue got hot coming out of the locker room, scoring the Owls’ first eight points of the second half to help the home team build a nine-point lead. However, Newman Jr. started to take command sinking a jumper and a three followed by a dish to Ree who buried a triple in front of the team’s bench to have the Bulldogs trail, 45-44, with 13:50 to go.
“I think (the difference offensively in the second half) was ball and body movement,” said Hester. “We were too stagnant in the first half. When Sean went out, I don’t think the team was as locked in as they should have been. I started putting three guards out there in the second half, which means we were able to handle the ball a lot differently in the second half. They were able to get downhill and play mismatches.”
Simeon Cottle, who finished with a game-high 25 points, would keep KSU in front with back-to-back jumpers. The home team’s lead would balloon to 10 with eight-plus minutes to go and become a 7-point edge with 2:22 remaining.
LA Tech had one last run in them to try to hand the Owls their first home loss of the season. Bates powered his way baseline for the layup. Ree followed by making two high-pressure free throws and then Batcho got the offensive rebound and putback to get to within one at 72-71 and 1:34 on the clock.
An untimely missed block out resulted in two made free throws for Adrian Wooley, one of the top scorers in CUSA. Another untimely happened next as Newman Jr. slipped around midcourt which led to a runout dunk by Wooley.
The Bulldogs battled in the final seconds just as they did on Thursday at Jax State but ended up suffering their second straight loss by one possession.
LA Tech had four players in double figures – Batcho (23), Ree (season-high 14), Newman Jr. (11), and Amaree Abram (11) – as the Bulldogs shot 41.9 percent from the field (26-62) and 40.0 percent from beyond the arc (8-20).
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