Louisiana Tech has already proved it can win on one of the toughest road floors in the Western Athletic Conference and now the Bulldogs are looking to show they can get a WAC win at home.

Tech will be looking for its first conference win of the season in the Thomas Assembly Center Saturday at 6:30 p.m. as the Bulldogs play host to Southern Methodist.

The Bulldogs enter the game at 7-8 overall and 2-4 in the WAC while SMU is 8-6 and 3-3.

Tech is coming off a 61-59 win at Hawaii, where the Bulldogs snapped a 13-game home win streak for the Rainbow Warriors. Now Tech is looking for its first home WAC win of the season after dropping home games to Nevada and Fresno State two weeks ago.

"In light of the win at Hawaii we find ourselves back where we were two weeks ago," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "It's time to establish something at home and keep things moving forward, and hopefully we can do that against SMU."

Tech stands at 2-2 in the TAC this season with non-conference wins over Texas-San Antonio and McNeese State before suffering the two WAC losses.

Sophomore forward Paul Millsap leads Tech with 18.9 points and 11.9 rebounds per contest while adding 1.53 blocks per game.

Senior guard Corey Dean is adding 11.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game for the Bulldogs while senior guard Donell Allick is chipping in with 10.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.

Sophomore guard Bryan Hopkins is SMU's top scorer with 18.2 ppg while Patrick Simpson leads the Mustangs on the boards with 7.3 rebounds per game and is adding 13.4 ppg.

Eric Casto rounds out SMU's double-digit scorers with 14.1 ppg and is adding 6.9 rpg.

Louisiana Tech leads the series over SMU 6-2 after sweeping the Mustangs last season. In the initial 1972 meeting between the two teams, former Bulldog standout Mike Green poured in 40 points in the Tech victory. Tech has outscored SMU 603-586 for an average win of 75.4 - 73.2.

Louisiana Tech coach Keith Richard's bench may not have gone very deep the last time the Mustangs and Bulldogs met, but there was still plenty of talent riding there.

Tech's reserves played a crucial role last Feb. 15 as the Bulldogs took a 74-69 overtime win over SMU before a crowd of 2,000 at the Thomas Assembly Center.

The game was Tech's second consecutive overtime contest and the third in the most recent five games for the Bulldogs. Tech lost in overtime to San Jose State on Feb. 14 of 2003 and took a double-overtime win over Fresno State on Feb. 5, 2003.

Corey Dean tied his career high with 23 points in that last win over SMU to lead Tech while Paul Millsap collected his 15th double-double of the season with 21 points and 12 rebounds, but it was the play of Barry Thompson and Jeremy Johnston off of Tech's bench that Richard felt was probably most valuable for his squad against the Mustangs.

Thompson tied his career high of 13 points and added four rebounds and two assists while Johnston totaled three points and six rebounds along with a career-best two steals. Johnston also tied a career-high in blocked shots with one.

Tech is averaging 66.3 points per game to rank No. 9 in the WAC, but with an average of 74.0 ppg over the past two contests, the Bulldogs are hoping to turn up the offensive heat against SMU.

"It will be a difficult challenge to beat SMU," Richard said. "But we've played better offensively the past two games and we're looking forward to try to keep moving things forward against SMU."

The game will be broadcast on KXKZ 107.5-FM in Ruston, La., with the pregame show beginning at 6 p.m.