Boxscore Louisiana Tech got off to a slow start out of the gates Friday as Louisiana-Lafayette raced to a 84-63 win over the Bulldogs in the opening game of the LSU Louisiana Classic at the Maravich Center.
Tech moves on to face Tulane at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at the Maravich Center. LSU defeated Tulane 83-58 in the second game of the Classic and will meet ULL at 3 p.m. Sunday
The Bulldogs were outrebounded 20-12 in the first half and gave up nine turnovers before intermission as the Ragin Cajuns moved to a 47-33 advantage at halftime and never looked back.
"That was a real wakeup call for us in my opinion," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "I hate to say this, but they were just more talented, more athletic and quicker to the ball than we were. They won the game with their athletic ability. They made more plays."
The ULL win overshadowed an outstanding showing from Louisiana Tech sophomore
Paul Millsap, who turned in his 21st career double-double by leading all players with 25 points and 14 rebounds.
"It's obvious that Paul can play at probably any level, but we have to tighten up as a team around him," Richard said. "Even with Paul at his best, we can't give up those kinds of offensive rebounds and turnovers and still expect to come away with the win."
While Millsap was Tech's lone double-digit scorer ULL had five players score at least 10 points with Wade Tiras leading the way with 20 poiints and seven rebounds.
Orien Greene added 18 points for ULL while Brian Hamilton and Dwayne Mitchell added 11 points each and Spencer Ford chipped in with 10 for the Cajuns.
Wayne Powell added nine points and five rebounds for the Bulldogs while Tech's
Donell Allick and
Michael Wilds scored eight points each.
Tech kept things tight early on, holding ULL to a three-point advantage at 20-17 with 9:53 left before intermission. But ULL would begin to stretch its lead from there, moving out to the 14-point halftime lead on Chris Cameron's trey at the buzzer.
The Bulldogs chipped the ULL advantage down to eight on a Millsap jumper atthe 15:24 mark of the second half, but that's as close as Tech would get to the red-hot Cajuns.
"ULL is good, there's no doubt," Richard said. "Their guards were tall and strong. Their pure athletic ability was a little overwhelming. The offensive rebounds and turnovers in the first half were back-breakers. And then we turned the ball over 12 more times in the second half."
Tech ended up outrebounding the Cajuns 37-34 and hit on 45.8 percent of its shots (27-59) while ULL connected on 50.8 percent (30-59) of its attempts from the floor.
Richard said a lack of effort wasn't behind the Bulldogs' struggles.
"We played hard," Richard said. "That wasn't the problem. We just have to get more athletic and better around Paul. We just have to go back and look at the film and try to do the things we have to do to make this team better."
