Boxscore

BILOXI, Miss. -- A night of 52.8 percent shooting propelled the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (2-7) over the Alcorn State Braves (1-8) Wednesday by a final score of 78-69 in the opening game of the 2007 Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic in the Mississippi Gulf Coliseum.

?That?s a great win for us,? Tech head coach Kerry Rupp said. ?I thought the kids played a really hard-fought game. Defensively, we tried to wear them down and get some points off that end. We had some nice baskets off of turnovers. I?m proud of our team for that.?

The most Tech trailed by was four points on the night in the first half. After taking a 33-31 lead into the halftime locker room, the Bulldogs began to pull away and would not look back for the remainder of the night.

Rupp added that after the win the only thing he did not like was the offensive rebounding by his Bulldogs; Tech finished with only four offensive boards on the night compared to Alcorn?s 12.

?The guys have worked hard on their shooting and execution on offense,? Rupp said. ?We still have to generate points any way we can. I?d like to see some improvement on our offensive boards. We got our hands on the basketball plenty, but we were unable to pull them in.?

A total of four Bulldogs finished with double-figure scoring led by junior JC Clark with 21 points and four rebounds. Junior James Loe finished the night with 15 points, while sophomore Kyle Gibson had a 14-point performance; 10 of which were in the first half. Junior Drew Washington also scored 12 points on the night.

The Bulldogs will return to action Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 8 p.m. to take on tournament host Southern Miss to be broadcast on ESPN 97.7 FM and streamed live on the internet at www.espn977.com.