Feb. 8, 2010

Box Score

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - After leading by 15 and being down by as much as 17, Louisiana Tech lost to New Mexico State 70-68 on a last-second shot Monday at the Pan American Center.

"We fought hard," head coach Kerry Rupp said. "It's very tough to win on the road and that was shown tonight. I thought our guys did a great job of fighting back after being down. The last possession was a great defensive possession, but they got the long rebound and put it back for the game-winner."

Hernst Laroche sent the Aggie faithful home happy with the final shot of the game to improve NMSU to 15-8 overall and 8-2 in the Western Athletic Conference. LA Tech fell to 19-5 overall and 7-3 in the WAC.

The Bulldogs shot a season-low 44.4 percent (8-of-18) from the free throw line and were outscored in bench points 25-2.

Senior Magnum Rolle led Tech with 18 points and had seven rebounds, five offensive. Senior Kyle Gibson had 16 points, eight rebounds and a team-high seven assists. Senior Jamel Guyton didn't attempt a shot in the first half, but finished 4-of-5 from the field with 10 points, eight of those coming in the final 4:07 of the game.

After leading 12-11 early in the game, Tech scored 14 unanswered points to take a 26-11 lead at the eight minute mark. Twelve of the Bulldogs' points were in the paint. From that point, the Aggies went on a 22-7 run for the remainder of the half, shut down the traffic in the paint to zero points for the Bulldogs and tied the game 33-33 going into halftime.

Tech shot 41.9 percent (13-for-31) from the field in the first half while NMSU shot 42.4 percent (13-for-33). The Bulldog were hurt on the boards early as they were outrebounded 23-17 in the first half.

The Aggies came out of the locker hot as they scored the first seven points of the half to lead 40-33. Ashaolu then gave the Bulldogs their first points in over six minutes of action. Tech missed their first eight free throws attempted and was just 5-for-13 in the half. Down by their largest margin of the game at 60-43 midway through the half, LA Tech went on a 13-0 run to cut the deficit to 60-56 with seven minutes remaining.

The Bulldogs got within two points at 62-60 and then one point at 66-65 on a Guyton three-pointer with one minute remaining in the game. Down three points, Guyton hit another huge three-pointer to tie the game at 68-68. The Aggies held for the last shot and after Jahmar Young's miss, Laroche got the rebound and hit the game-winner from 12 feet out.

Young led the Aggies with 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field. NMSU was 8-of-18 from the three-point range for 44.4 percent while Tech was 6-of-17 for 35.3 percent.

Junior DeAndre Brown scored 15 points and dished out five assists for the Bulldogs.

LA Tech will next host Hawai'i on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Thomas Assembly Center.