Boxscore

RUSTON -- After a surging second half, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (14-9; 7-3 WAC) lost to the visiting Utah State Aggies (16-5; 7-3 WAC) 63-62 in the Thomas Assembly Center in front of a crowd of 3,320 Saturday Feb. 4.

The loss is the second consecutive for the Bulldogs after losing Thursday night to Nevada at home.

?These are good people we?re playing,? Tech head coach Keith Richard said. ?It was a hard fought game, and somebody wins and somebody loses. We wish it was us, but we have to shake it off and move on.?

The Bulldogs were held to 36.7 percent shooting in the first half at 11-of-30, while Utah State seemed to not be able to miss at 77.8 percent for 14-of-18 which included 6-8 from behind the arc.

The game stayed relatively close for the first five minutes of the first half before Utah State gradually pulled away at the 17:06 point in the first half with a run of 19-9 run over a seven minute period. The Aggies took a 13 point lead into the halftime locker room

The Bulldog offense saw a resurgence in the second half, and with 6:21 left to go in the ballgame, Tech had crept back enough to take the lead 54-53, thanks to a monster dunk from junior forward Paul Millsap.

?In the second half, we decided to force it 10 feet and in some how some way,? Richard said. ?That helped us in the second half. It?s going to be awfully difficult to continue to win games until the offense catches up to our effort. Our effort was tremendous, we just needed more offense.?

Utah State took the lead again with a jumper from junior forward Chaz Spicer at the 4:50 mark and would not relinquish. Spicer was fouled on the shot and would convert the free-throw and give the Aggies a 56-54 lead.

Senior forward Nate Harris extended the lead by knocking down a pair of free-throws with 3:37 left to go in the game to put the score at 58-54.

Senior point guard Daevon Haskins answered with a steal and lay-up with 2:51 to go in the game, but a three-pointer by junior guard Durrall Peterson put a dagger in Tech?s hopes and gave Utah State a 61-56 lead.

Tech continued to stay close at 63-60, but a missed three-pointer from junior forward Chad McKenzie with eight seconds left to go would fall into junior guard Jerome Richardson?s hands and as he layed the ball in, time would expire on Utah State?s ensuing possession to give the Aggies the victory.

The Bulldogs shot 17-of-32 in the second half for 53.1 percent but shot 1-of-14 from the three-point line. Tech has shot 4-of-40 from behind the arc for the past two games.

?Our perimeter play was atrocious,? Richard said. ?It didn?t even seem like basketball.?

Utah State sophomore guard Jaycee Carroll led the Aggies with 19 points and shot 5-of-7 from three-point land.

?We had some good ball pressure, but the other four players on the floor moved tremendously without the ball.?

Millsap finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds for the Bulldogs while Ricardson finished with 11 points and four boards. Senior guard Corey Dean added seven points and nine boards, and McKenzie added eight points.

The Bulldogs return to action Wednesday, Feb. 8, at home to take on the Boise State Broncos at 7 p.m.

?We?re taking it one game at a time. We?re going to try to win the next game. This is still a team that has won seven games, and we just need to regroup.?