Boxscore Louisiana Tech showed its grit by putting a scare in the No. 18 nationally-ranked University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala. tonight, but the Bulldogs fell short to the Crimson Tide 73-63 in Coleman Coliseum.
The Bulldogs had the score tied at 51 with 9:17 left to play, but Tech head coach Keith Richard said his team made poor decisions down the stretch that cost his team the game against the team picked to win the SEC West this year.
?It was a close game until the end, but I thought we made too many poor decisions in that time to win the game, along with good defense by Alabama,? Richard said. ?We have nine new scholarship players, and you can expect mistakes like that from an inexperienced team in a big game.?
Tech (2-3) scored the first bucket of the game to take its only lead of the first half before the Crimson Tide?s mix of size and athleticism set the tone. Alabama?s sophomore guard Ronald Steele evened the score at two on a lay-up, and Alabama (3-1) built as much as an 11-point lead at 24-13 on a three-pointer by Steele with ten minutes to play.
But the Bulldogs showed their resilience and chipped away at the lead to cut it to two points at 32-30 with a jumper in the lane by
Jerome Richardson at the 3:58 mark, before the Crimson Tide, who averaged 81.7 points per game entering the contest, showed its ability to quickly put up points.
Alabama finished the opening stanza on a 10-2 run to take a 40-32 halftime lead. Tech junior forward
Paul Millsap and Alabama?s 6-8, 230-pound senior forward, Chuck Davis, went head-to-head the entire first period, as Millsap scored 17 of Tech?s 32 first half points, and Davis had 11 points.
Then, in the second half, the Bulldogs showed their grit by opening the final stanza on an 11-3 run and tied the score at 43 after a steal, lay-up and the bonus free throw by senior point guard
Daevon Haskins.
After holding Alabama to only three points for the first seven minutes of the second half, Tech took the lead on a lay-up by senior forward
Michael Wilds, and the two teams battled back and forth with five ties and two lead changes over the next five minutes.
The Crimson Tide finally created separation after applying a full-court press, combined with hot shooting from the floor and charity stripe down the stretch, and went on a 14-5 run to open a 65-55 lead with only 2:19 left to play.
Alabama then maintained the 10-point lead and finished with the 73-63 margin.
Millsap led Tech with his 44th double-double of his career with 21 points and 11 rebounds, as he surpassed Hall of Famer Karl Malone for third place on the all-time double-doubles list in Tech history, and Richard had nothing but compliments for the two-time NCAA rebounding champion.
?I thought Paul played hard and finally went to work on offense,? Richard said. ?After the first half, Alabama decided to defend him from the back and make our other players beat them. But we didn?t get the plays we needed from our guards.?
Senior guard
Corey Dean scored 11 points with two rebounds, two assists and four steals, while Richardson added 10 points and Haskins chipped in seven points and five assists.
Tech shot only 40.3 percent from the floor (25-62) but made eight of nine free throws. The Bulldogs were out-rebounded for the first time this season, as the Crimson Tide won the battle of the boards 40-37, but Richard said his team rebounded well considering the match-ups.
?We didn?t defend the three-point line like we needed to in the first half,? Richard said. ?We new we needed pressure on the three-point line and do better on back-side rebounding. We did better with those two things in the second half, and that allowed us to get out in transition and use our quickness to score points.?
The Bulldogs will play their first home game of the season on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Thomas Assembly Center when they host Southern. The game will be televised on Cox Sports.
