Bulldogs blow past Dillard, improve to 5-1 on young season

Louisiana Tech rolled to its fifth consecutive win by scoring 62 firsthalf points in route to a 105-65 pounding of Dillard on Saturday afternoon inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court.

There was plenty of offense to go around for Tech (5-1), which set a season high with 39 made field goals, 12 of those coming from beyond the arc. Defensively, the Bulldogs pulled down a season-high 45 rebounds and generated a season-tying 15 steals.

It did not take long for Tech to jump on Dillard (3-4) as Daniel Batcho scored the first points of a 10-0 run to start the contest.

It was not until the 16: 41 mark that the Bleu Devils got on the scoreboard. The threepointers started to pile on after that.

The Bulldogs made eight of them in the span of seven minutes. There were also two different stretches where Tech made seven straight and nine straight field goals, building a 51-18 lead after Isaiah Crawford stole his fourth ball and dunked it in transition with 6:36 to go in the first half.

He made a layup in the paint to give the Dogs 62 points for the first half, the most in a single half in almost 10 years.

On the other end, the Bleu Devils managed just 25 first-half points. The second half was occupied by the bench for the most part, which contributed a total of 67 points on the day.

All 14 Bulldogs saw action with 10 of them seeing at least 10 minutes. Devin Ree provided the most points with a career- high 21. Jaylin Henderson (12) and Jordan Turner (10) also tal-lied double-digit points off the bench. The other double-figure scorers included Batcho who had 17 points and a careerhigh 14 boards in just 13 minutes played. Tahlik Chavez was the fifth such Bulldog, tallying 12 points while going a perfect 3-of-3 from long range. Dillard’s Tory Caro and Justin Warren did the bulk of the scoring for the Bleu Devils, scoring 18 and 12 points, respectively. The visiting team shot just 36.1% from the field.

“I am really proud of our team. Three wins in five days,” Tech head coach Talvin Hester said. “ I thought we started off on the right foot. We did back our pressure off a little bit, seeing if we could execute some things. We played a deep bench and saw some good things from our guys. I am excited where we are at right now. “ They are believing in some of the things we have been talking about since July,” he continued. “They believe we can get to where we dream of going. We are growing to know who we are as a team. I think we can build on this and get better.”

After a three- game home stand, Tech hits the road to face New Mexico on Wednesday in the Pit. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. and will be streamed live on the Mountain West Network.