Louisiana Tech committed 22 turnovers against No. 7 Florida as the Bulldogs fell 76-55 Tuesday night at the O'Connell Center in the first round of the Preseason NIT.

The Bulldogs (0-1) struggled against the Florida defense as the Gators (1-0) took advantage of the Tech turnovers and converted them into 28 points.

"My biggest concern playing in Gainesville was turnovers in our halfcourt offense," said Louisiana Tech head coach Keith Richard. "Their press and their offense get a lot of media attention but I think they play very good halfcourt defense."

Louisiana Tech kept the game close in the first half before the Gators went on an 11-2 run to close the period, holding the Bulldogs to just one field goal in the last five minutes of the half.

The Bulldogs committed 14 turnovers in the first half and the Gators took advantage to build a 40-26 halftime lead.

"Somewhere in that first half, the turnovers starting coming and really swung the momentum of the game," Richard said. "To me, that was the story of the game, our inability to handle the ball in half court offense against their half court defense."

The Gators continued to build the lead at the beginning of the second half, opening the period with a 10-1 run and pulled the game out of reach.

The Bulldogs managed to hold Florida All-American Matt Bonner to just four points but had no answer for freshman forward Matt Walsh who led all scorers with 26 points.

"Boy, what an outstanding player for a freshman," said Richard referring to Walsh. "He did an outstanding job and he?s going to be an excellent player."

Louisiana Tech leaned heavily on senior forward Antonio Meeking, who topped the team with 20 points and 12 rebounds, but struggled to find other scoring in its offense.

"When we did get in the ball in the half court offense, we needed to find someone
other than Meeking to score for us," Richard said. "We lost two good players last year in Gerrod Henderson and Marco Cole, our top two scorers, and we have to find a new way to win. This was a tough task but we learned a lot about ourselves tonight."

The Bulldogs return to action on Sunday afternoon when they host Millsaps at 2 p.m. at the Thomas Assembly Center.