Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
Daniel Batcho and Kaden Cooper each tallied double-doubles as Louisiana Tech took down league leader Middle Tennessee, 75-69, on Saturday night inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court.
“At home, we have been pretty good with our energy and preparation,” said head coach Talvin Hester. “It was just a matter of were we going to finish the game. I was trying to make a mental note of not to panic when Middle Tennessee made that early run because they are a really good team.”
LA Tech (15-6, 4-4 CUSA) found itself down four with 4:51 to play, but the Bulldogs finished the game on a 16-6 run to protect the TAC and claim their seventh straight home victory.
Long before making the comeback, the ‘Dogs had an early rhythm offensively. Sean Newman Jr. connected with Cooper on an alley-oop dunk. Devin Ree buried a three-pointer. And Newman Jr. tacked on a 15-foot jumper and a pair of free throws to give LA Tech a 9-2 lead.
That lead evaporated real quick.
Middle Tennessee (14-6, 5-2 CUSA) countered with a whopping 15-0 run to stun the crowd, taking a 7-point deficit and turning it into an 8-point advantage. The cause was five forced turnovers and seven straight missed shots by LA Tech.
Finally, a Sean Elkinton offensive rebound and putback stopped the bleeding. Then helping slice into the deficit was Batcho who did not score a single point until the 7:43 mark when he made one of two free throw attempts.
The power forward started to settle in after that, scoring six straight points to tie things up at 23-23. However, Camryn Weston would sink a jumper in the paint and connect on a three-pointer to help give MTSU a 3-point edge at halftime.
The second half was back-and-forth for most of it, staying within four points each way. Cooper was huge in the final 20 minutes, scoring 14 of his 16 points after halftime, including hitting three corner three-pointers.
“Young players get their confidence on offense,” said Hester. “Today, Kaden got his confidence from playing hard on defense. Next thing you know the ball goes in and he is playing extremely hard. That is a growth thing he is going to go through. You saw the type of player he can be once he settles down and lets the game come to him.”
LA Tech was down four with just under five minutes to go. And then Batcho took over.
The nation’s leader in field goal percentage sparked a 10-0 run for the ‘Dogs, scoring eight of them including a massive alley-oop slam to help give the home squad a 69-63 advantage with 1:46 remaining.
“We got stops,” said Hester. “Not only stops, but we had Kaden Cooper and Daniel Batcho flying over the rim getting rebounds to secure their misses. When we hold people to one shot, now it gives ourselves a chance. And in the second half, we were the free throw team I know we can be.”
Then there was Cooper who kept LA Tech in it with a made jumper and one of his three triples coupled with two made free throws that helped during the run.
The biggest shot of the game though came courtesy of Newman Jr. who got his defender up in the air late in the shock clock, sinking the 10-foot jumper plus the foul making it a 72-65 lead.
LA Tech simply owned the second half, shooting 63.6 percent (14-of-22) during the stanza to help seal the come-from-behind victory. Batcho finished with 25 points and a season-tying 12 boards while Cooper had 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. Newman Jr. tacked on 13 points and eight assists.
MTSU was led by Weston who had 16. Jestin Porter and Jlynn Counter each added 15 and 13 points, respectively.
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