Feb. 5, 2008

FRESNO, Calif. -- After falling behind by as many is 27 points in the second half, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (3-17; 0-8 WAC) fought back from the deficit but, unfortunately, could not capitalize and lost to the Fresno State Bulldogs (11-12; 4-5 WAC) Monday night by a final score of 70-58 in front of 10,082 fans in the Save Mart Center.

"We went into the second half not worrying about the score," Tech head coach Kerry Rupp said. "We wanted to come out hard and compete and really get after them defensively. When we move the basketball, we seem to play much better. But again, at the end of the day, when you dig yourself a hole, it's hard to get out."

Tech dug itself an early hole by trailing by 11-0 in the first half before finally getting on the scoreboard on a lay-up by sophomore Kyle Gibson to cut the lead to 11-2 at the 15:48 mark. The opening stanza would get no better, and Tech trailed 38-17 at halftime.

"We missed some early shots and I think our guys got frustrated," Rupp said. "There's no time to drop your head. If you make a mistake, you move forward. Things started to compound on us and snowball, so we said we'd come out and battle and play harder in the second half."

It was a different story after halftime. After getting down 52-27 with 12:30 left to play, Tech ran off 13 unanswered points over the course of three minutes to cut the lead to 52-40 with 8:59 to play. It would be the closest Tech would come for the remainder of the game, but Rupp added he was pleased with his team's effort.

"If we played like we did in the second half for the entire game, we would have put ourselves in a great position," Rupp said. "Now we've showed we can do it, so we need to play like that the whole game."

Gibson led all scorers again with 22 points, while freshman Orren Tims finished with a career-high 13 points and eight rebounds. Tech held Fresno to only nine second-half baskets while shooting 43.8 percent themselves in the final stanza.

Tech will return home Thursday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m. to take on Boise State in the Thomas Assembly Center. The game will be heard live on KXKZ 107.5 FM and streamed live via the internet at www.z1075fm.com.