Boxscore

Louisiana Tech took a step forward in the paint Sunday as the Bulldogs bested VASDA Gold 87-71 in exhibition play at the Thomas Assembly Center.

The win put Tech at 2-0 in preseason play. The Bulldogs open regular season play on Friday with a 7 p.m. contest at the University of Alabama.

Louisiana Tech Keith Richard stressed improvement in his team's post play heading into the VASDA game and afterwards felt his Bulldogs had made progress.

"I thought for about 25 of the 40 minutes we accomplished what we wanted to defensively," Richard said. "Our ball pressure was better and our post defense was much better. But there was another 15 minutes of play where we didn't do very good.

"It's a small step forward but it is a step forward and we're real happy about that."

Tech led 40-25 at intermission but let up late in the game as the Bulldogs outscored VASDA by only one point, 47-46, in the second half.

Junior guard JueMichael Young hit on 9-of-11 shots from the floor and led the Bulldogs with 24 points and added eight rebounds while freshman forward Paul Millsap added a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

"I thought our inside game was a little better tonight," Millsap said. "We still have a long way to go, though, and we'll keep working hard.

Junior guard Corey Dean totaled 15 points for Tech while junior forward Wayne Powell chipped in with 14 points and seven rebounds.

With only two seniors and five new Bulldogs on the squad, Richard realizes the Tech coach staff will have to remain patient and allow the team time to grow.

"It's going to be slow moving with this team," Richard said. "Once again I think we did a good job of sharing the ball with each other. The twenty assists were good. The 17 turnovers were too many and we have to cut them out.

"We had some nice spurts getting up and down the floor and some breaks and easy buckets which this team needs. They're learning how to do it, so overall I think we made improvement today."

Dean played a role in two of Tech's runs thanks to a pair of dunks. His first dunk 4:38 into the contest started a 8-2 run that help propel the Bulldogs to a double-digit advantage his second dunk with 10:13 remained helped push Tech to as much as a 25-point lead. Dean totaled four dunks on the
night.

Tech dominated the paint by outrebounding VASDA 53-26 with Powell, Millsap and Bruce Edwards each recording a blocked shot.

VASDA coach Reni Mason, who played for Tech from 1990-91, said Tech's improvement in the paint will play a crucial role for the Bulldogs this season.

"I'm not sure how the (Western Athletic Conference) plays out in terms of talent and everyone has question marks at this time of year," Mason said. "But Tech looked like a standard, pretty good team.

"Coach Richard does a great job in preparing his team and that showed. I think how they end up performing inside will determine what kind of season they end up having."

Shawn Hall hit on 5-of-9 3-point attempts and led VASDA with 25 points while Antoine Knighton hit on 4-of-9 treys to add 16 points for VASDA.

Former Bulldog Craig Jackson added two points for VASDA on a pair of free throws in 10 minutes of play.