, buddy@rustonleader.com
12-19-2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Samford’s 71.0 shooting percentage in the second half of play proved too much for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (5-6) and bested Tech by a final score of 71-58 Thursday night in the Pete Hanna Center.“They shot the ball very well,” Tech coach Kerry Rupp said. ”We came out in that second half and they knocked down a couple of back-to-back threes, and our guys dropped their heads.
“We needed to come back and run our offense, and we failed to do that.
“It was a stretch of five minutes in the second half that did our team in. We need to refocus and keep our toughness when we fall behind.”
Sophomore Andy King also connected on 6-of-7 from behind the three-point line for Samford to all but put the game out of reach. King’s 20 points led all scorers on the night.
Tech would not trail in the first half of play before taking a 28-26 lead into the halftime locker room.
Both teams shot evenly in the first half at 48 percent.
Tech went 12 of 25 from the field while Samford shot 10 of 21. Junior Jamel Guyton led Tech in scoring in the first half with seven points.
Samford eventually took the lead for the first time with 16 minutes left to play in the game for a 36-34 score, which was part of a 12-0 run over the next three minutes before Guyton hit a pair of free throws to cut the Samford lead to 44-36 with 12:28 on the clock.
Samford would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the night en route to the victory.
Tech was led by Guyton at 15 points, while junior Kenneth Cooper finished the night with 13 points.
Junior Kyle “Iron Man”Gibson totaled 12 points while playing 36 minutes.
The Bulldogs return to the Thomas Assembly Center Monday at 7 p.m. to take on the TCU Horned Frogs in non-conference action.
It will be the second game of a doubleheader with the Lady Techsters, who will face the University of Arkansas-Little Rock beginning at 5 p.m.
It will mark the second doubleheader of the season for the two Tech squads.
The men’s game will be broadcast live Monday on KPCH 99.3 FM with an audio feed available over the internet at www.thepeach993.com.
“We’ve got to come back in our next game and play stronger and with more focus,” Rupp added. “We have to keep scrapping.”
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