Dec. 31, 2010
Box Score
MOSCOW, Idaho - For the third consecutive game, the Louisiana Tech men's basketball team was defeated as it lost 77-47 at Idaho on New Year's Eve at the Cowan Spectrum.
The Bulldogs fell to 9-7 overall and 0-2 in the Western Athletic Conference for the first time since the 2007-08 season. The Vandals improved to 7-6 overall and 1-1 in the WAC.
"Everyone is disappointed about it and we've got to regroup from top to bottom," Tech head coach Kerry Rupp said. "Everybody has got to work harder and practice harder. We've got to find out what we can do."
Senior guard DeAndre Brown led Tech with 13 points. Freshman guard Cordarius Johnson joined Brown in double figures with 10 points.
Junior forward Olu Ashaolu scored nine points and eight rebounds which ended a streak of four games with a double-double.
The Vandals got out to a 9-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game until Tech scored on a dunk by Ashaolu. The Bulldogs trailed 15-9 until the Vandals scored the next 14 points to take a 29-9 lead with 8:33 to play in the half.
Brown started to heat up late in the half as he scored the Bulldogs' last nine points as they went into halftime trailing 41-26.
Tech shot 33.3 percent from the field in the half, but allowed Idaho to shoot 60.0 percent.
The Bulldogs started the second half well with two field goals from junior center Romario Souza to cut the deficit to 14 points, 44-30. However, that would be as close as Tech would get as a Bulldog scoring drought of nearly six minutes allowed Idaho go score 16 unanswered points. Idaho led 74-39 for its largest lead of the night with 4:21 remaining.
"It's only 0-2 in this league," Rupp said. "We've got to stay together and stay united. I thought we had some good things going, but we have a lot of work to get this team to where it needs to be."
Louisiana Tech, which led the conference in turnovers at 17.5 per game, had just 13 turnovers on Friday.
Tech shot 28.8 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from the free throw line, both season-lows. Idaho shot 50 percent from the field and 83.3 percent from the free throw line.
Jeff Ledbetter led the Vandals with 20 points including 3-of-4 from three-point range.
Louisiana Tech will begin a three-game homestand starting on Thursday against Fresno State at 7 p.m.
