Boxscore Louisiana Tech's
Corey Dean poured in a career-high 24 points but red-hot Boise State picked up the win as the Broncos downed Louisiana Tech 72-64 Saturday before 2,173 at the Thomas Assembly Center.
Tech fell to 13-13 overall and 7-9 in the Western Athletic Conference while Boise State climbed to 19-8 and 11-6.
BSU has now won five straight and eight of its last nine games dating back to a 68-66 home loss to Tech on Jan. 29.
The Bulldogs had their chances, pulling within two points of BSU at 61-59 on a pair of free throws by
Barry Thompson with 3:16 remaining and again on a Dean jumper with 2:44 left, but Boise State made big shots when it needed them to pull away for the win.
"It was the same old story for us tonight," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "Just too many turnovers at critical times and not making shots when we needed them."
Boise State started strong, jumping out to a 10-0 advantage at the 15:58 mark of the opening half, but the Bulldogs slowly battled back, tying the game for first time at 24-24 with 2:20 left in the half and tying the game again at 29-29 at the halftime buzzer as
Eric Woods nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing off an assist from Dean.
The Bulldogs kept thing tight over the first five minutes of the second half with neither team gaining more than a three-point lead over the first four minutes before the Broncos slowly pulled ahead.
BSU led by as many as eight points several times midway through the second half, but Tech again tried working its way back before the Broncos shut the door in the final two minutes of play.
"What we pride ourselves most on came back to bite us in the end," Dean said. "We take more pride in our defensive play than anything else, and we let it get away from us tonight. We didn't make defensive stops and they hit shots at big times."
The most important of those "big times" came after Thompson hit the two free throws to pull Tech within two with 3:16 remaining. Boise State countered with a 6-0 run as Aaron Haynes scored five consecutive points off of two baskets and a free throw while Bryan Defares added a free throw for the last of those six points.
Boise State outscored Louisiana Tech 30-20 in the paint and held Bulldogs standout forward
Paul Millsap to nine points and nine rebounds.
"We slowed their inside game down tonight, which was huge for us,"BSU coach Greg Graham said. "You've got to occupy (Millsap). If they let him take control on the offensive end, he's too good a player."
The game marked only the sixth time this season Millsap was held to single-digit scoring figures and only the seventh time he was held under 10 rebounds.
Tech turned the ball over 14 times, which is actually 2.8 fewer turnovers than the Bulldogs averaged heading into the contest. The trouble for Tech was those turnovers seemed to come at crucial times allowing Boise State to rebuild leads.
The Broncos outrebounded the Bulldogs 43-41, marking only the fourth time Tech has been beaten on the boards this season. Boise State hit on 36.7 percent (22-60) of its shots from the floor while Tech connected on 37.7 percent (23-61) of its attempts, but the Broncos came up with critical shots at critical times to pick up the win.
Much of BSU's damage was done at the charity stripe, where the Broncos hit on 22-of-33 attempted free throws while the Bulldogs made good on 11 of only 12 attempts.
Tech forward
Barry Thompson also had a career-night, tying his personal best of 13 points and adding seven rebounds while
JueMichael Young chipped in with 11 points for the Bulldogs.
Haynes hit on 8-of-19 shots from the floor and 9-of-15 attempted free throws to lead the Broncos with 25 points and nine rebounds.
Defares added 15 points and six boards for BSU while Coby Karl added 13 points and six rebounds. Booker Nabors was the only other Bronco in double-digit scoring figures with 10 points and six rebounds.
"It hurts because we really wanted to win this last home game of the season," Dean said. "But now we just have to go out and try to win our last two on the road and try to regain momentum heading into the conference tournament."
Tech returns to action on Thursday night as the Bulldogs play a 7:05 contest at Rice.
