Boxscore

HONOLULU, Hawaii -- The Louisiana Tech curse is stronger than ever at the University of Hawaii.

With Western Athletic Conference tournament seeding on the line, the Bulldogs (19-11; 11-5 WAC) played tremendous defense in the second half to down the Hawaii Warriors (17-10; 10-6 WAC) 51-48 in the Stan Sheriff Center for senior night in the last league game of the regular season for their first league loss at home for the year.

?We had a tremendous second half defensively,? Tech head coach Keith Richard said. ?Unbelievable. We played with great energy here tonight. It was nice to hold a team to such a low total in the second half.?

The Bulldogs came out of the gate sluggish offensively in the first half and with a run at the end of the first half, the Warriors took a 36-25 lead into the halftime locker room.

In a tale of two halves, however, the Bulldogs? defense stepped up and kept the Warriors to just 12 second half points; eight of those coming in the last four minutes of the ball game.

?I?ve seen this team defend like this all year,? Richard said. ?If you think about it, they?ve had to. The depth has been the key. I thought at the beginning of the year this team?s depth would help on offense, but it?s been the opposite. It?s been a great year for us. I?m really proud of these guys.?

Junior Marcus Elliot closed out the scoring for the Bulldogs by connecting on 1-of-2 free throws with :03 seconds left, and a missed three-pointer by Julian Sensley closed the game out and gave Tech a three-seed in the WAC tournament next week.

?How about this team,? Richard said. ?What a great road team. We?ve picked up some great wins this season. If we do our homework and do what we?re supposed to do, at a minimum we will play in the post-season.?

Junior forward Paul Millsap led the scoring for the Bulldogs with 20 points and 23 rebounds with five blocks. The ?Chairman of the Boards? has extended his lead to 13.5 rebounds per game in his quest to three-peat the NCAA rebounding championship. Senior guard Corey Dean added nine points while Elliot chipped in with eight. Sensley led the scoring for Hawaii with 16 points.

The Bulldogs will return to action Thursday, March 9, at 2 p.m. CST in the Lawlor Events Center to take on the Boise State Broncos in the quarter-finals of the WAC tournament.

The game will be broadcast live on Cox Sports TV local channel 26 and can be heard on KXKZ 107.5 FM or by clicking on the multimedia link at www.latechsports.com. There is also a link for a live feed to watch by clicking ?Live WAC Basketball.?