Boxscore

DALLAS -- Corey Dean's 3-point attempt at the buzzer hit the back rim and bounced out Wednesday as SMU took a 73-70 comeback win over the Bulldogs before 2,774 at Moody Coliseum.

The loss snapped a two-game win streak for Tech as the Bulldogs fell to 13-10 overall and 8-6 in the Western Athletic Conference while SMU climbed to 12-10 and 7-7.

Tech led 37-27 at the half and stretched that advantage to 14 points twice early on in the second period before the Mustangs began chipping away at the Bulldogs' lead, tying the game at 50-50 with 9:18 left in the contest on a Bryan Hopkins' 3-pointer.

The teams traded leads from there, with Tech's Wayne Powell tying the game again at 59-59 as his putback tied his career high of 21 points.

But the Mustangs moved out from there, building as much as an eight-point lead at 69-61 before the Bulldogs tried a late comeback of their own.

Donell Allick hit a pair of late 3-pointers while Dean added another trey, but it wasn't enough as the Mustangs avenged a 58-57 loss at Tech on Jan. 22. Hopkins, SMU's leading scorer, was held scoreless in that contest but this time led the Mustangs with 22 points.

"First I want to applaud SMU for its second half effort," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "It was a really poor defensive performance from our starters in the second half."

Allick fell two points shy of his career best with 21 points while Paul Millsap recorded his 17th double-double of the season by adding 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Bulldogs.

SMU came out strong to open the game, beginning the game with a 6-0 run for its biggest lead in the opening half.

But Tech stormed back from there, tying the contest at 11-11 on an Allick 3-pointer and going on to take control of the final 10 minutes of the first half.

The Bulldogs led by as many as 16 points in the first half at 33-17 as Tech connected on 68.8 percent (11-16) of its shots in the opening 13:09 and finished the half with a 60.0 shooting percentage (15-of-25).

Powell was especially effective in that first stanza, hitting on 6-of-8 shots and leading the Bulldogs with 13 points while Allick added 11 points first-half points.

Louisiana Tech hit on 39.2 percent (11-28) of its second-half shots and ended the contest with a 49.1 shooting percentage (26-53) while SMU was held to a 35.5 shooting percentage (11-31) in the first half but hit on 56.0 percent (14-25) of its shots after intermission to finish with a 44.6 shooting percentage (25-56).

"Obviously that wasn't as good an offensive performance in the second half than the first, but we still could have won with a little defensive backbone," Richard said. "We just didn't do it. That kind of defensive effort we showed in the second half was ridiculous."

Devon Pearson and Justin Isham added 16 points each for the Mustangs, who
tied the third largest comeback in SMU history. The Mustangs also won the battle on the boards, out-rebounding Tech 32-28.

Tech returns to action on Saturday as the Bulldogs play host to New Orleans at 5 p.m. in the Thomas Assembly Center. That contest will be part of Tech tripleheader day with Louisiana Tech's baseball team playing host to Arkansas at 1 p.m. before the Lady Techsters face SMU in a women's basketball contest at 3 p.m.