Feb. 7, 2009
LOGAN, Utah -- It took all 40 minutes of play for the No. 25 nationally ranked Utah State Aggies (23-1; 11-0 WAC) to finally put away a very tough and scrappy Louisiana Tech team (9-15; 3-8 WAC) Saturday night in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum by a final score of 60-52 in front of a capacity crowd of 10,270.
"I was proud of our effort but still disappointed we lost," Tech head coach Kerry Rupp said. "We came out and competed and battled and tried to make it happen for ourselves. I thought we did some great things offensively and spread them out. We never gave up and battled the whole night."
The Bulldogs defense started strong holding the Aggie offense scoreless for over the first four minutes Senior James Loe struck first to give Tech a 2-0 with a jumper in the paint at the 17:32 mark followed by a three-pointer from junior Kyle Gibson with 16:50 for a 5-0 lead.
After Utah State responded with a 5-0 run of its own, Tech scored four unanswered to lead the Aggies 9-5 after a tip-in by junior Jamel Guyton under 11 minutes to go in the first half.
The Aggies against responded to tie the game 9-9 and took their first lead of the night with a three-pointer to go up 12-9 at the 7:00 mark. Tech would tie the game 15-15 on a three-on-one fastbreak that saw a thunderous dunk by freshman Olu Ashaolu with 2:05 to play in the half.
Utah State would edge the Bulldogs for the remaining of the first half and took a 22-17 lead into the halftime locker room.
It would be the Aggies, however, that would start the second half firing and started with a 12-0 run over the first five minutes of the second half to take a 34-17 lead.
"We did some good things defensively," Rupp said. "We really got into them tonight. I saw a lot of good things, and I'm just proud. We've grown up as a team, and we had a great roadtrip."
Tech answered with a 21-10 run over the next eight minutes to trail 44-38 with 6:29 left to go in the game and would get back within six again with a Gibson basket with 1:42 on the clock for a 54-48 score. Junior Magnum Rolle hit a long two-pointer with 26.2 seconds left to play for a 56-52 score. It would be the last time the Bulldogs would score as USU took the 60-52 win.
Gibson led the Bulldogs with 14 points on the night, while Ashaolu finished with a career-high 12 points. Gary Wilkinson led the Aggies at 16 points.
The Bulldogs return to the home court Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. to take on Fresno State at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on KXKZ 107.5 FM locally with a live audio feed also available at www.z1075fm.com.
A video feed can also be purchased for $4.99 by logging onto www.latechtv.com and clicking on the athletics link on the top right portion of the page. Fans can order the game starting one hour prior to tip off.
