Boxscore The Golden Hurricane raged in the second half Saturday as Tulsa stormed to a 80-70 win over Louisiana Tech before a crowd of 7,338 at the Donald Reynolds Center.
The loss closed out Tech's regular season at 14-14 overall and 8-10 in the Western Athletic Conference and means the Bulldogs will be the seventh seed in the upcoming McCaffrey WAC Basketball Tournament to be held at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Cal.
Louisiana Tech will face No. 10 seed San Jose State at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday while Tulsa, the No. 9 seed, will face SMU that same night.
The Bulldogs led 39-36 at intermission but couldn't withstand a furious second-half effort by the Golden Hurricane, including a career-performance from junior forward Guilherme Teichmann.
Tulsa outscored the Bulldogs 44-31 in the second half.
Teichmann entered the contest with a career scoring high of 14 points but hit on 10-of-14 shots from the floor against the Bulldogs to finish with 24 points along with 10 rebounds for this third double-double of the season.
Tulsa's 80 points were the most scored against the Bulldogs since Rice took a 89-77 win at Louisiana Tech on Jan. 5 and only the second time a Tech opponent reached the 80-point mark this season.
The Golden Hurricane also hit on 54.5 percent (18-33) of their shots in the second half and 50.8 percent (30-59) for the contest.
"We've been talking about our second-half defense for a while," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "We've made it a real issue. The reason we won last Thursday at Rice was because of our second half defense, and our second-half defense was the reason we lost today.
Paul Millsap recorded his 18th double-double of the season to lead the Bulldogs with 23 points and 10 rebounds while
Donell Allick added 18 points for the Bulldogs.
Jarius Glenn hit for 15 points for the Golden Hurricane while Jason Parker added 12 points for Tulsa
Tulsa outrebounded the Bulldogs 30-28 after holding Tech to seven boards in the second half while the Golden Hurricane pulled down 22 boards after intermission.
"They pulled down 10 offensive rebounds in the second half," Richard said. "We were getting beat off the dribble unbelievably. That was as big an issue as anything."
After trailing by as many as 12 points in the second half the Bulldogs made a late run, pulling to within four points twice in the final 3:30. But that's as close as Tech could come as Tulsa came away with the win.
"You have to have a hardness, a mindset, to make defensive plays and especially to make them in the second half," Richard said. "Today we didn't."
Now the Bulldogs have to get ready for a new season and a first-round tournament game against San Jose State.
"We've got to develop a strategy and get our players to erase this game and our record," Richard said. "We're 0-0 and it's a new season. Anyone can win the tournament, and that's what we have to try and do."
