Boxscore

It wasn't the prettiest of games for Louisiana Tech's Bulldogs, but it still went into the win column.

Louisiana Tech saved its best for last Tuesday as the Bulldogs closed out their non-conference season with a 65-62 win over Montevallo at the Thomas Assembly Center.

The win pushed Tech to 6-4 while Montevallo fell to 8-3.

Freshman forward Paul Millsap connected on 10-of-11 shots from the floor to lead Tech with a career-high 22 points while adding eight rebounds to lead the Bulldogs on the boards also.

It was the second consecutive down-to-the-wire win for the Bulldogs after Tech took a 69-68 road win at McNeese State last Saturday.

"I guess the good new is that we won," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "In these last two late-game scenarios we've done some nice defensive things at the end to pull out the wins, and that's a positive."

Montevallo took a a 62-61 lead with 1:46 remaining in the contest on a Marc Kennedy jumper before the Bulldogs regained the lead at 63-62 with 44 seconds left. Millsap added a pair of free throws with 25 seconds remaining while Tech's defense did the rest and held off the Falcons' last-ditch effort to send the game into overtime.

"I knew from watching film this week that Montevallo was a much better team than they were last year," Richard said. "The film told me they had been doing a pretty good job so far and sure enough they came in and played exceptionally well."

The Bulldogs hit on 50 percent (22-44) of their shots from the floor while Montevallo made good on 46.3 percent (25-54) of its field goal attempts.

Tech also won the battle of the boards, outrebounding Montevallo 32-28.

The largest lead of the close game was six points, when Tech took a 43-37 advantage on a pair of Corey Dean free throws with 15:23 remaining. But that's as far as the 'Dogs could pull away as the Falcons stayed tight in a game featuring six ties and five lead changes.

"We came out flat," Richard said. "We were a step slow until the last minute or two and couldn't muster enough excitement or energy to get on a run and pull away. Maybe we just have to realize that some nights you just play flat. But credit our guys with doing what they had to do at the end of the game to get the win."

Dean added 14 points for the Bulldogs while Donell Allick chipped in with 13 points along with five assists and three steals.

Kennedy poured in 16 points and pulled down nine boards to lead Montevallo while Caleb Kennedy added 12 points and D.J. Towns chipped in with 10 points for the Falcons.

Louisiana Tech opens the Western Athletic Conference season on Saturday as the Bulldogs play host to Tulsa at 7 p.m. in the Thomas Assembly Center.