Boxscore

BILOXI, Miss. -- Despite a scrappy defensive effort in the first half Wednesday night, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (2-8) could not hold off the Southern Miss Golden Eagles (7-3) on the second night of the 2007 Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic and lost by a final score of 80-56 in the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.

?We played our hearts out for the first 18 minutes of this ball game,? Tech head coach Kerry Rupp said about his team?s first half performance. ?We had a defensive breakdown near the end of the first half, but we had been creating turnovers and getting a good shot selection during that time frame. I?m really proud of the effort our guys gave tonight.?

After the Golden Eagles opened the scoring on the night with a three-pointer, junior JC Clark put the Bulldogs on the board with 16:42 on the clock in the first half to cut Southern Miss?s lead to 3-2. Senior Keith Smith gave Tech its first lead of the night at the 15:49 mark with a turn-around jumper for a 4-3 score.

After the Bulldogs got up 27-21 with 3:48 on the clock, the Golden Eagles put together an 11-0 run before freshman Brandon Mims cut the Southern Miss lead to 32-29 with under a minute to go in the first half. The Bulldogs trailed 37-29 going into the halftime locker room.

In the second half, the Bulldogs climbed back to within nine points with under eight minutes to go trailing 55-46 before Southern Miss extended its lead and did not look back.

Sophomore Kyle Gibson led Tech scorers with 14 points and five rebounds, while Clark pitched in 11 points for the Bulldogs.

?I saw a lot of good things tonight,? Rupp added. ?We do have to rebound the basketball better, but we have some things to build on. We?re a young team and we need everybody contributing.?

Tech will be back in action Thursday night for the final game of the 2007 Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic taking on the University of New Orleans. Tip off is set for 6 p.m. and can be heard live on KPCH 99.3 FM and streamed live via the internet at www.kpch993.com.