Bulldogs fall in CUSA quarterfinals

A season that looked to be building towards something unprecedented ended in a stunner as No. 2 seeded Louisiana Tech lost 70-67 to No. 7 Middle Tennessee in the Conference USA quarterfinals on Wednesday. 

The Bulldogs finish 22-10 overall after the upset loss, one that had the Blue Raiders overcome shooting 29.2 percent from the field in the first half with seven made shots and four turnovers, to nearly 50 percent shooting in the second half to stun the Bulldogs from making a deep run in Huntsville.

It proved to be a second half where nearly everything went against Tech. Jestin Porter had 0 points at halftime for MTSU. He'd finish with 18. The Blue Raiders also made the most of their free throws, shooting 19-22 at the line compared to 12-18 for the Bulldogs. MTSU shot 5-14 from three in the first 20 minutes but heated up for 4-7 from three in the second half.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs closed the final 4:50 of the contest without a basket and missed five free throws in the second half.

LA Tech head coach Talvin Hester said the final result will sting for a Tech program that had its eyes on a league title, but believes the loss can't define the 2023-24 season.

"You look at the end result and it doesn't really show who this team is," Hester said postgame. "This is March. I don't know if anyone's been watching college basketball, but I've been glued to a lot of it the past few days and it's a lot of 10 seeds and 11 seeds and 7 seeds and 6 seeds winning. It's because guys get new life. Guys get new life in March. This team sensed us kind of faltering in the second half and they took advantage of it. I don't feel like we lost to a bad team. I feel like we were in a dog fight with a really good basketball team. I wish we could have made more free throws and wish we could have capitalized on a couple of those transition opportunity late where we turned the ball over. But we didn't. I don't think you can judge this team by how it ended. I think you gotta judge it by the whole body of work."

The Bulldogs came out in business, leading 17-10 early while holding MTSU to 3-9 shooting. Tech continued to put its foot down, leading 23-15 with 8:00 left in the first half, forcing MTSU to shoot off-target and ill-advised jumpers. But with a chance to stomp the Blue Raiders out for good, the Bulldogs couldn’t finish the blow.

MTSU went over six minutes in the first half without a field goal. And by the time the visitors made their first basket to break the cold streak, they only trailed by five and would only trail 32-27 at the break.

The Blue Raiders stuck around because Tech's main offensive weapons weren't all feeling it, with CUSA Player and Defensive Player of the Year Isaiah Crawford walking into halftime 2-8 from the field with 5 points and 6 rebounds. Tahlik Chavez did have 10 points at the break but was only 1-5 from three-point range.

The second half didn't give either player much springboard to improve their shooting, as Crawford went 2-9 from the field for 7 points in the second half, while Chavez went 1-8 from the field in the second half.  Daniel Batcho kept Tech afloat as much as he could with 24 points - a program record in a single CUSA tournament game, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

Chavez, who finished with 17 points in what could have been his final collegiate game, reflected on his one and only season at Tech and the ride he went on with the 2023-24 Bulldogs.

"I appreciate Coach Hester for bringing me onto this team and it was a great season - one of the best seasons I've ever had and one of the closest-knit teams I've ever been on. We just love being around each other, love playing with each other, love going through hard practices together. We always had each other's back and it was a great season."

Hester opened his postgame remarks by thanking his seniors, including Chavez, for making the 2023-24 a memorable ride.

"We had a special group this year. We had eight new guys come in, quite a few older guys that we had," Hester said. "They made it a special year for us. No matter how it ended, I'll never forget coaching this team. This was one of my favorite years in coaching. I felt like we left it on the floor. We made mistakes, but what team doesn't. I feel like we battled and competed till the end. We lost to a good basketball team."

Now, the Bulldogs will await a potential call from the NIT. However, the NIT changed its rules drastically this season - no longer awarding automatic bids to regular-season conference champions or the second-best team in a conference whose top team already made the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the NIT will guarantee two teams (based on NET rankings) from each of the six power conferences (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, Big East, and Pac-12). The top two teams in the NET rankings not in the NCAA Tournament will be selected.

The rest of the field of 32 will be selected from “the 20 best teams available.” 

Hester believes LA Tech deserves to be one of those teams.

"I think this team deserves to play again. I really do," Hester said. "I think we're one of the better mid-major teams in the country. I don't think we can be defined by this game. I think if they look at our body of work, we challenged ourselves on the road and played tough road games. And we capitalized on the games we had at home. Our road conference record was better than anyone in conference. I think they deserve to play. I would hope they would, but I'll let other people do their jobs and that's for somebody else to figure out."