Boxscore Speed kills.
Louisiana Tech found that out the hard way Thursday as Texas-El Paso took a 62-55 win to oust the Bulldogs in quarterfinal play of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament at the Save-Mart Center.
The loss ended the Bulldogs season at 15-15.
UTEP used a speedy, smothering defense to frustrate the Bulldogs, who were held to a 35.7 shooting percentage (20-of-56).
"Their quickness caused us a lot of problems," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "It was hard to score in the first half and hard to score in the second half. They were quicker than us at every spot on the floor."
UTEP had used its speed to defeat the Bulldogs twice in the regular season, so Richard and his staff stuck to a zone defense throughout the contest. That helped the Bulldogs make a final late run after trailing by as many as 14 points with 13:34 remaining, but the the Bulldogs didn't have quite enough firepower in their arsenal to pull off the win.
"Their speed is the main reason we played zone," Richard said. "When you do that you have to hope the other team misses shots. They did, and that's how we crawled back into it. We just couldn't quite get out in front."
Tech made its late run in the final 4:05 as they trailed 59-50 at that point.
The Bulldogs went on a 5-0 run from there on a
Barry Thompson 3-pointer and
Paul Millsap layup to pull within four points of UTEP, but that's as close as the Bulldogs would get as UTEP (23-6) moved on to face Boise State in semifinal play on Friday night.
Richard admited that UTEP's speed and tight defense made things tough for the entire game.
"It was hard to breathe out there," Richard said. "That includes me on the sideline. We played valiantly effort-wise. We just couldn't make enough shots against that fast defense."
Millsap capped off the season with his 20th double-double as the NCAA's top rebounder and WAC Freshman of the Year finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Bulldogs.
The fact that Millsap finished with those numbers was made more impressive by the fact that he picked up his fourth foul with 14:24 remaining but was still in there when the final horn sounded.
"That didn't effect my game that much," Millsap said. "I just had to play smart basketball. It was a learning experience out there for me playing that long with four fouls."
Allick added 12 points for the Bulldogs while Tech's
JueMichael Young chipped in with 11 points and six rebounds.
Omar Thomas scored 20 points to lead the Miners while Chris Craig hit on 4-of-10 3-pointers to add 12 points for UTEP.
Despite the loss, Richard still felt the Bulldogs turned in a solid season and leaves Tech with plenty to build on for next season.
"I really think we overachieved this season," Richard said. "We replaced five starters and still did better than last season. We have the top rebounder in the country and have a lot of potential for the future.
"I've won a conference championship and had two 20-win seasons, but this has still been my most gratifying season. It's the worst ball-handling and shooting team I've had and we still mustered up 15 wins. We have some things to address in terms of recruiting, but we have a great foundation and are already thinking about next season."
