Boxscore

Louisiana Tech looked to be in the holiday spirit Saturday as the Bulldogs fought through a wild finish to take a 69-68 win over McNeese State at Burton Coliseum.

Tech showed the gift of giving in the first half as the Bulldogs turned the ball over to McNeese State 19 times. But in second half the Bulldogs gave themselves a gift in the form of inspired play and fewer turnovers that allowed Tech to escape with its second road win of the season even as McNeese State's Eldridge Lewis nailed a 3-pointer at the final buzzer.

The win moved Tech to 5-4 on the season while McNeese State fell to 3-7.

Louisiana Tech's guards committed 15 of 19 Bulldog turnovers before intermission and didn't hit a shot from the floor in the opening half as the 'Dogs trailed 30-23 at halftime. But Tech quickly turned that around in the second half, with guard Bruce Edwards scoring the first points of the half on a 10-foot jumper 27 seconds into the period to cut the Cowboys lead to 30-25.

Minutes later Tech guard Eric Woods followed with back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 33-33 with 17:45 remaining.

Tech finally nabbed its first lead of the second when JueMichael Young launched a good 3-pointer from the right wing to give the Bulldogs a 44-43 advantage with 13:11 left. Tech stretched the lead to 46-43 seconds later on a putback by freshman forward Paul Millsap.

Even with the 19 turnovers in the first half Tech finished with a total of only 28.

"It's not any coincidence that we only turned the ball over eight times and scored 46 points in the second half," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "Our guards were playing back on their heels in the first half and at the half we made some adjustments and changed our offensive set. That helped us get into our offense."

McNeese State regained the lead at 53-52 with 7:04 remaining as Bryce May dunked an "alley-oop" pass from Lewis to put the Cowboys back up on top. Tech went back up by one point the next trip down the court as Millsap scored off another offensive rebound for a 54-53 Louisiana Tech lead.

Millsap fouled out with 5:44 remaining, but not before recording his sixth double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Tech's foul trouble worsened with 3:18 remaining when its other starting forward, Wayne Powell, fouled out. McNeese's Marcus Watts countered with a pair of free throws off the foul to give the Cowboys a 59-58 lead.

The Bulldogs went with four guards from there and regained the lead at 61-59 with 2:55 left when Donell Allick connected on his third 3-pointer of the contest. Allick later added a pair of free throws before Young's layup with 1:32 left in the contest pushed Tech's lead to 65-59.

McNeese State made it a three-point game with 51 seconds remaining on a 3-pointer by Eldridge Lewis to cut the lead to 66-63, but Jeremy Johnson came through with a pair of crucial free throws to extend Tech's lead back to five points.

Allick, who scored 16 points in the contest, hit the second of two free throws at the 31-second mark to give Louisiana Tech a six-point advantage at 69-63 and the Bulldogs held on from there to escape with the win.

Edward Garriett led McNeese State with 15 points while Lewis and Monte Farmer added 11 points each for the Cowboys.

Tech returns to action on Tuesday as the Bulldogs play host to Montevallo at 7 p.m. in the Thomas Assembly Center.