Nov. 26, 2010

Box Score

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Senior guard DeAndre Brown scored 24 points as the Louisiana Tech men's basketball team had a 14 point first half lead, but lost 74-65 at UALR Friday afternoon at the Jack Stephens Center.

Brown was 8-of-18 from the field including 4-of-9 from three-point range for his third game of at least 20 points. Tech fell to 5-2 on the season and UALR improved to 4-2.

"We have to play for 40 minutes," Tech head coach Kerry Rupp said. "We got off to a very good start, but then we didn't block out or guard the ball without fouling. We can't send them to the free throw line 38 times. We are a work in progress and we are learning all the time. I thought the kids fought hard there at the end."

It was a tale of two halves as UALR shot 14.8 percent from the field in the first half (4-for-27) and then 69.6 percent (16-for-23) in the second half.

Tech jumped out to a 9-1 lead before UALR cut the deficit to four, 13-7 at the 12:30 mark. The Bulldogs then went on a 12-4 run to open up a 25-11 lead, its biggest of the game, with 5:41 left in the half. Brown scored 10 of Tech's first 15 points of the game.

Despite poor shooting from the field, the Trojans stayed in the game from the foul line as they shot 72.2 percent (13-for-18) from the charity stripe in the first half. With time running down in the half and the Bulldogs holding the ball for one final shot, Brown hit a fade away three-pointer to give Tech a 29-22 lead at halftime.

Tech shot 42.3 percent from the field (11-for-26) in the first half.

The second half was quite different than the first. UALR started the half on a 12-2 run to take its first lead of the game, 34-31 with the 16:24 remaining. They extended the lead to 42-38 until Tech's Lonnie Smith hit a lay-up and was fouled on the play. He converted on the free throw attempt to cut the deficit to one, 42-41 with 9:53 remaining.

A few possessions later, Smith hit a three-pointer to tie the game 46-46 with 8:21 remaining. However, the Bulldogs never regained the lead as the Trojans won by nine.

UALR ended up shooting better than Tech for the game as they were 40 percent from the field compared to the Bulldogs who shot 39.3 percent. Both teams shot over 75 percent from the free throw line, but the Trojans were 29-of-38 compared to Tech who was 15-of-19. Tech was outscored 52-36 in the second half.

Junior forward Olu Ashaolu scored 11 points and led the team with seven rebounds before fouling out late in the game. Smith scored a career-high eight points.

UALR was led by Solomon Bozeman who scored 23 points.

Tech will next be in action on Wednesday at home against SMU at 7 p.m.