Boxscore The Cardiac 'Dogs did it again Saturday as Louisiana Tech took a last-second 58-57 win over Southern Methodist before 2,863 at the Thomas Assembly Center.
Louisiana Tech moved to 8-8 overall and 3-4 in the Western Athletic Conference while SMU fell to 8-7 and 3-4.
The Bulldogs won on a final shot with under five seconds left for the second straight game as Tech point guard
Daevon Haskins pushed the ball downcourt before dishing to
Corey Dean, who hit the winning shot with 1.8 seconds left.
SMU's last ditch long-distance attempt fell short as the Bulldogs celebrated for the second consecutive game. Louisiana Tech defeated Hawaii by two points last Saturday as
Wayne Powell's offensive rebound and putback gave Tech the win after losing at San Jose State by two points in the final five seconds two nights earlier.
"That was a big win, a huge win," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "The thing that makes it so big was that in was our second consecutive big win in the final seconds, and our third, or really fourth, straight game that came down to the final seconds."
Louisiana Tech had lost another one in the final seconds at home on Jan. 8 as Fresno State took a 60-58 win. Richard said something Haskins learned from that game carried over to the win against SMU.
"I'm really proud of Daevon," Richard said. "Two weeks ago against Fresno State we had the same situation and he pushed the ball down and looked at me to call the timeout. That wasn't what we wanted because the time out gave Fresno a chance to get set defensively.
"Daevon is fast and can really push the ball down the court. That's what we want him to do. I'll call the timeout if I don't like what I see. This time he got a great push and didn't look to me but instead just did his thing. When you get that kind of push it's a great time to score late, and he saw Corey wide open and just fed him."
Richard said he was also pleased to see Dean bucket the final shot.
"Corey had missed three or four shots down the stretch that could have let us pull away," Richard said. "So it was good to see him make that shot to win it."
Paul Millsap led the Bulldogs with 25 points and 11 rebounds, along with three blocked shots, while Dean added 14 points and four rebounds.
Dean said that it was largely a case of being in the right place at the right time.
"When Daevon got the ball I knew he had to make a quick push in transition," Dean said. "I was just trailing him going for the rebound or to give him a second option. He double-pumped and got the ball to me and I put it up. It felt like I couldn't make a shot in the second half. I was out of rhythm, so making that shot felt good. It felt real good."
Dean, Haskins, Millsap and
Donell Allick played all 40 minutes for the Bulldogs.
While Haskins' offensive play at the end was key, his defensive effort throughout the game was just as big. Tech's man-to-man defense in the opening half and zone defense in the second stanza held SMU's Bryan Hopkins, the second leading scorer in the WAC, scoreless in the contest as the sophomore guard went 0-6 from the floor and turned the ball over five times.
Haskins played a big role in holding down Hopkins as his man-to-man defensive smothered the SMU Mustang in the first half. Haskins also played a crucial role in Tech's zone in the second half that still held Hopkins down.
"Daevon hawked him in the first half and really got to him," Richard said. "We had to go to a zone in the second half because we couldn't stop SMU inside. (Eric) Castro was killing us in the paint. But the three guards paid attention to Hopkins in the second half and kept him out of it. That was a good defensive game for us."
Castro and Derrick Roberts led SMU with 19 points each.
SMU led 33-27 at intermission and stretched the lead to as many as eight early in the second half before the Bulldogs battled back. Tech ended up shooting 40.4 percent (23-57) from the field while the Mustangs shot 42.9 percent (24-56).
"We had a chance to win the game but we didn't make the defensive plays on our end," SMU coach Jimmy Tubbs said. "It was two or three defensive plays we didn't make being the reason we didn't win. Their zone gave us some shots, but we didn't make them."
The Bulldogs also won the battle on the boards and out-rebounded SMU 38-33.
Louisiana Tech returns to action on Thursday as the Bulldogs play host to Boise State in a 6:30 p.m. contest at the Thomas Assembly Center.
