Boxscore RUSTON -- Hawaii (9-6; 0-2 WAC) could not get the proverbial monkey of the back as the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (4-10; 2-0 WAC) beat the Warriors 70-67 Saturday night in the Thomas Assembly Center to take their sixth straight win over Hawaii dating back to the 2003-04 season.
?This team really needed this win,? Tech head coach Keith Richard said. ?I don?t think we could have won tonight if we hadn?t beaten San Jose the way we did Thursday night (when Tech beat San Jose 92-56).?
The Warriors struck first with a bucket at the 18:49 mark in the first half and added seven more points before senior
Harry Disy scored Tech?s first points with just over 15 minutes to go in the first half to cut Hawaii?s lead to 9-2. Tech ran off six points in a row before the Warriors scored their next points.
After a 5-0 Warrior run, senior Marcus Elliot hit a lay up with 12:01 to go in the half to cut Hawaii?s lead to 14-10. Hawaii followed with eight unanswered points over the next three minutes to take a 22-10 lead with 8:15 on the clock. The Bulldogs, however, outscored the Warriors 20-9 for the remainder of the second half and only trailed 31-30 at halftime. Bulldog senior
Trey McDowell finished with 12 first half points.
The Bulldogs came back out of the tunnel and took the lead from the Warriors by outscoring Hawaii 12-8 in the first six minutes of the second half for a 42-39 score. The Bulldogs added to their lead, and with 9:01 left in the game led 50-43. Tech would go on to win the ballgame 70-67.
Tech was led by senior
Trey McDowell with 22 points and six rebounds for the night, while McKenzie finished with 18. Senior
Harry Disy added 11 points and seven boards. Ahmet Gueye led the Warriors with 18 points.
?I thought Trey made huge plays for us in the second half,? Richard said. ?I told the team coaching is only so much in the game. You need kids to make play, and Trey really did that. He really made some offense happen in the second half.?
The Bulldogs will return to action Thursday, Jan. 11, in Boise, Idaho, to take on the Boise State Broncos in the Taco Bell Arena at 8:05 p.m. CST and can be heard live on FM KXKZ 107.5.
