RUSTON - Louisiana Tech senior forward Antonio Meeking scored a career-high 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Bulldogs to a 76-55 victory over Harding (6-1) Tuesday night at the Thomas Assembly Center.

The Farmerville, La., product scored 15 of the final 23 points for Tech, including eight in the final four and a half minutes to fuel a 16-0 run which sealed the win for head coach Keith Richard and company.

"Antonio gave us some big offensive points when we really needed it," Richard said. "We have got to continue to get that from him if we want to continue winning like we did tonight. The big thing about what Tiger did was the fact we got the ball inside to him without turning it over."

On the night, Meeking hit 10 of 16 field goals and 6 of 10 free throws while also recording a career-high with four blocked shots.

"Tech did a great job of getting the ball to Meeking," said Harding head coach Jeff Morgan. "I thought they had a great game plan, and he had a great game."

Leading 32-29 at the half, Tech (2-3) hit a blistering 81 percent (17-21) of its field goals in the second half to outscore the Bison 44-26. However, the final outcome was still in doubt until the Bulldogs turned up their defense during the final stretch, recording four steals in a one-minute period and converting all four into easy baskets on the offensive end.

"We told the players at halftime that if they would stay tough-minded defensively and rebound, that sooner or later we would find some offense and pull away from them," Richard said. "We didn't realize it would be that late, but we finally accomplished it."

Richard said another key to the victory was Tech's perimeter defense against a Harding squad that entered the game hitting 52 percent of its field goals and 43 percent of their three-pointers. However, against a tough Tech man-to-man defense, the Bisons connected on only 3 of 14 from beyond the arc and 39 percent of their total shot attempts.

"We worked hard on defending their three-point shooters the last few days in practice," Richard said. "I told our players before the game that we were more talented than (Harding), but that the three-point line could close the gap if we let them make a bunch of threes. I thought we worked really hard in that aspect of the game as far as not giving up easy three-pointers. I think over time it finally broke their back. They had to have the three-pointers to beat us."

Senior guard Lavelle Felton chipped in with 12 points, five rebounds, six assists and five steals in 34 minutes of action. Bruce Edwards and Zach Johnson added nine points apiece while true freshman Jeremy Johnston scored eight points in his Tech debut.

Jason Malek led Harding with 14 points.

The Bulldogs will return to action Saturday night when they host Jackson State at 7 p.m. at the Thomas Assembly Center.