Boxscore

CLEMSON, S. C. -- It would prove to be a battle between a stingy defense and a high powered offense.

Ultimately, the Clemson Tigers (19-12) held on to defeat the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (20-13) 69-53 for the first round of the 2006 NIT in the Littlejohn Coliseum in front of an announced crowd of 4200.

Clemson?s offense won the battle in the beginning and put the Bulldogs down 30-16 at halftime after Tech?s star junior forward Paul Millsap went out midway in the first half with three fouls. Millsap had accounted for nine of the Bulldogs? first half points.

?The turnovers hurts us,? Tech head coach Keith Richard said of his team?s 15 first half turnovers. ?Clemson had a stingy full court defense that we hadn?t seen in months. They wore us down in the first ten minutes of the game with their defense.?

The second half seemed to start the same way the first half did, but with 6:47 remaining on the clock, the Bulldogs got back within ten points at 49-39, thanks to a runner in the lane by true freshman point guard Drew Washington. The offensive spurt would prove to be not enough, and Clemson would hold on to win and advance to the second round.

?We were able to hang in their near the end with our defense,? Richard said. ?I thought their pressure was tremendous. We just couldn?t hang on long enough.?

Millsap led the way for the Bulldogs with 19 points and nine rebounds. The Chairman of the Boards gathered enough boards to all but totally secure the NCAA Rebounding Championship for an unprecedented third straight year.

Both senior point guard Daevon Haskins and senior Corey Dean played their final game in a Louisiana Tech Bulldog jersey. Haskins finished with five points and four assists leaving him with 328 for his career and eighth all-time on Tech?s career assist list. Dean finished with two points and five rebounds.

Clemson saw four guys get into double figures beginning with Akin Akingbala with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Both Cliff Hammonds and Vernon Hamilton added 14 points apiece, while Julius Powell added another 10 for the Tigers.

?I?m really proud of this year?s team,? Richard said. ?I hope every Tech fan realizes just how good we were. We certainly were not the best offensive team I?ve ever had, but they were probably my best defensive team. We had 21 road games this year. This team really worked hard to crank out 20 wins.?