Boxscore

Louisiana Tech coach Keith Richard has been asking his squad for big defensive stops late in tight games.

On Thursday night his wish came true as the Bulldogs shocked Hawaii 62-61 before a crowd of 7,474 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Tech's Corey Dean pulled up and hit the game-winning jumper with 49 seconds remaining, but then held on for a pair of defensive stops in the waning seconds as the Bulldogs pulled off their first win ever in Hawaii.

The Bulldogs moved to 12-10 overall and 6-6 in the Western Athletic Conference while Hawaii fell to 16-5 and 8-3.

Hawaii moved the ball downcourt for a late attempt to win the contest, but a kicked ball out of bounds turned off the shot clock and gave the Rainbow Warriors the opportunity for a last-second try for the win.

Julian Sensley's 3-point try was no good, and the Bulldogs boxed the Warriors away from the rebound as time ran out for Hawaii.

"We've had four different games this season where we needed one late stop to win," Richard said. "This time we got more than one, and it gave us the win. It was a great win in a great game. I'm extremely proud of the win despite some of the adversity we faced."

That adversity left the Bulldogs with nine players availble for the contest as Richard benched two players who did not dress for disciplinary reasons.

Freshman forward Paul Millsap, who did not start for the first time this season for disciplinary reasons, led the Bulldogs with 19 points and eight rebounds while Wayne Powell added 15 points and five rebounds.

The game was tight most of the way, with the biggest lead coming early in the second half as Louisiana Tech built as much as a 10-point advantage on a Powell jumper with 17:25 remaining.

But the Rainbow Warriors would battle back and retake the lead at 38-36 on a Haim Shimonvich basket at the 13:36 mark of the second half.

There were six ties in the contest and Hawaii's biggest lead was only by three points.

Donell Allick added 13 points for Tech while Dean chipped in with 12 points for the Bulldogs.

Michael Kuebler and Jeff Blackett topped Hawaii with 15 points each.

Richard was especially proud by the defensive effort from his Bulldogs.

"We worked to put ball pressure on a great passing team," Richard said. "The kept Hawaii from picking us apart."

He was also proud of the intensity his squad showed despite being shorthanded.

"Those nine guys could have folded, but they didn't," Richard said. "There's no quit in these 'Dogs."

Tech tries to make it two straight on Saturday as the Bulldogs play a 4 p.m. contest at San Jose State.