Boxscore RUSTON, La. -- In an historic night in the Thomas Assembly Center, Louisiana Tech junior forward
Paul Millsap was only able to finish with 11 points.
His point total, however, is not going to be how every lucky person in the 2,104 attendance Wednesday, Feb. 15, will remember the 74-63 victory for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (16-10; 9-4 WAC) over the San Jose State Spartans (6-18; 2-9 WAC).
Millsap dazzled the crowd by pulling down a Thomas Assembly Center 28 rebounds (11 offensive and 17 defensive) to reclaim the lead in the national rebounding average with 13.2 boards per game.
?I know you?re not supposed to look at individual stats, but I want this kid to get (the national rebounding championship),? Tech head coach Keith Richard said. ?I?m greedy. I want our team to be good, and I want him to win the rebounding title three years in a row, so I told him to go get them all tonight.?
Millsap earned himself the right to be at the top of the rebounding list for the 2005-06 season in the NCAA and also is the season single-game high leader in the nation with five more rebounds than Clifton Jones? 23-rebound performance at Old Dominion.
?This was a game that he really needed to get a lot of (rebounds),? Richard said of Millsap three-peating the NCAA Rebounding Championship. ?He really took it to heart and got it done. It?s not over; he?s going to need some more, but that was a good start.?
The Bulldogs started out of the gate firing hard on offense and built an 11-3 lead with 16:54 left to go in the first half.
The Spartan offense continually fell short throughout the game and would prove never to be able to get the lead. Tech would then capitalize and take a 38-25 lead into the halftime locker room.
Tech never looked back and kept a two-digit lead for the remainder of the second half before finishing the Spartans off 74-63.
Millsap would not prove to be Tech?s leading scorer Wednesday night, and junior Marcus Elliot had a career night in points with 18, shooting 6-of 13 from the field and 3-of-6 from behind the arc.
The Spartans were led by junior guard Carlton Spencer from Gretna, La., with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Senior forwards Demetrius Brown and Alex Elam both added 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The Bulldogs return to action Saturday, Feb. 18, at 5 p.m. on ESPN2 at Carbondale, Ill., to take on the Southern Illinois Salukis in ESPN?s BracketBuster match up.
?The great thing about Saturday?s game is that it?s a reward somewhat for our season?s play,? Richard said. ?Our game was picked as an ESPN2 game as one of the BracketBuster games. This team?s done some good things so far this season. The work?s not done, but this is a good team that?s done good things so far. Now we?ll go into another hostile environment and a big time home team in Southern Illinois. It?s going to be a tremendous challenge, but we?re a pretty good road team. We?ll go up there, play our best and see what happens.?
