Nov. 28, 2008

Box Score

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- It was a tale of two halves at the 2008 Great Alaska Shootout as Louisiana Tech (2-3) lost its third straight game Friday afternoon losing 76-62 to Western Carolina (2-2) and will play host school Alaska Anchorage in the 7th and 8th place Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. CST.

"The best thing I liked about tonight is that the kids never hung their heads, and they kept fighting even though we lost," Tech head coach Kerry Rupp said. "We've got some work to do, but I saw some tremendous strides tonight. We're not finishing in transition like we need to. It only takes one spark to light a prairie fire, and we're still waiting on our spark."

The Bulldogs started strong defensively holding a sharp-shooting Catamount team to 32 percent shooting in the first half overall and 20 percent from behind the three-point line. The Bulldogs, however, also struggled from the field and trailed WCU 29-23 at halftime.

WCU quickly took an 11-point lead early in the second half 34-23 before the Bulldogs put together an 11-2 run over the next two minutes to pull the game back to within two points at 36-34 with 17:13 left to play.

It would not last as the Catamounts would keep the lead for the remainder of the night to win 76-62.

Tech junior Kenneth Cooper led Bulldog scorers at 13 points and five rebounds, while junior Magnum Rolle finished with 11 points. Both junior Kyle Gibson and freshman Brandon Gibson also finished the game with 10 points apiece.

Greg Avery led all scorers for the night with 17 points and six rebounds.

The Bulldogs shot 42 percent from the field for the night going 19-45 compared to 29-64 from WCU for 45 percent.

Tech returns to action Saturday, Nov. 29, at 3 p.m. CST against on ESPN 97.7 FM and Fox 92.7 FM against Alaska-Anchorage. A live stream of the audio will be available at www.espn977.com.