Boxscore RUSTON, La. -- The Cardiac 'Dogs of Louisiana Tech have seen both the good and the bad of games going down to the wire this season.
This one felt like a cardiac attack.
New Orleans' James McNeilly hit a 3-pointer with four seconds remaining and Louisiana Tech fumbled the ball away before trying a buzzer beater as the Privateers took a 87-85 overtime win over the Bulldogs before 3,534 Saturday at the Thomas Assembly Center.
The Bulldogs had made one defensive stop at the end of regulation as they denied Bo McCalebb's attempted drive and layup with two seconds left to push the game into overtime.
But the late defensive stop didn't happen in overtime as McNeilly nailed his second 3-pointer of the contest for the win.
"The bottom line is that we just didn't it done," Louisiana Tech coach Keith Richard said. "We've won some close games this season, we've lost some close games this season. We just didn't get that stop when we needed it."
It didn't look like a game headed for overtime early on as UNO began the game with a 9-0 run in the opening 2:02. But Richard, often a stickler for playing his starters as long as possible, quickly looked to his bench to pull the Bulldogs back into it.
Tech's bench came through as a pair of big 3-pointers from
Eric Woods along with clutch baskets from
Barry Thompson and
Michael Wilds sparked the Bulldogs and pulled them back into the game.
"We had some guys come off the bench early and get us back into the game," Richard said. "Our defense wasn't there in the first half but we played better defensively in the second half to get back into it. But in overtime, again there just wasn't enough defense. We didn't get the job done."
Both teams were hot offensively in the first half, with UNO hitting on 50 percent (16-32) of its shots before intermission and Tech countering with a 59.3 shooting percentage (16-27).
But both teams cooled off considerably in the second half as the Privateers hit on only 33.3 percent (10-30) of its shots while the Bulldogs shot 37.5 percent (9-24).
UNO had hit on 8-of-14 3-point attempts in the first half, but finished at 9-of-20 behind the arc. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, McNeilly's game-winning trey was the only long-range attempt UNO connected on in the second half.
"That was the only 3-point shot we gave up in the second half," Richard said. "The 3-point shot was a point of emphasis at halftime because we let our team know they had to stop UNO from making so many, and it still came back to beat us."
Paul Millsap led Tech with 22 points and 12 rebounds while
Donell Allick added 16 points for the Bulldogs, who also received 13 points from
Wayne Powell and 11 points from
Corey Dean.
McCalebb entered the contest with a UNO-record 14 consecutive 20-point games. The Bulldogs held the quick, penetrating point guard to 18 points in regulation, but McCalebb scored eight of UNO's 15 points in overtime to finish with 26 while adding six rebounds, three assists and four steals.
UNO's James Parlow hit on 5-of-6 3-point attempts and finished with a career-high 22 points while Shawn Malloy added a career-high 19 points along with nine boards for the Privateers.
The game was the third overtime meeting between Tech and UNO with the Privateers being the first to win on the opponents' home floor to take a 2-1 series advantage in post-regulation play. Tech is now 12-4 in overtime games under Richard.
Tech is now 3-4 on the season in games decided by five or fewer points.
Louisiana Tech returns to action on Friday with an 8:05 p.m. contest at UTEP.
