Jan. 20, 2011

Box Score

LOGAN, Utah - Senior guard DeAndre Brown scored 19 points as the Louisiana Tech men's basketball team lost to three-time Western Athletic Conference Champion Utah State 74-57 Thursday at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

Louisiana Tech fell to 9-11 overall and 0-6 in the WAC while Utah State improved to 17-2 overall and 6-0 in conference play.

Rebounding was the difference in the game as the Bulldogs recorded a season-low 21 boards while the Aggies had 44 including 16 offensive rebounds. Utah took advantage of the extra opportunities and scored 18 second chance points.

"Utah State got after the boards and we had some guys out of position," said Tech head coach Kerry Rupp. "Overall, our defensive effort was much much better."

Junior forward Olu Ashaolu picked up two fouls in the first 43 seconds of the game and played just three minutes in the first half. He played 16 minutes in the second half before fouling out, but not before scoring nine points and recording a team-high six rebounds.

Brown scored his 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field including 3-of-8 from three-point range.

The Bulldogs fell behind 16-2 as they made just one of their first 10 shots taken. Tech then went on an 11-5 run to make the score 21-13 at the 8:50 mark. Utah State led 43-29 at halftime. Both teams shot well from the field as USU shot 50 percent and Tech shot 46.2 percent.

In the second half, Tech scored eight points in nearly one minute with half of those points coming off of dunks from Ashaolu. At that point, the Aggies lead was just 12 points, 56-44 with 11:41 left to play. But the Bulldogs never got closer than 12 points. Tech was outscored just 31-28 in the second period as the Aggies won their 25th consecutive home game behind 9,768 fans.

"We got some great looks in the second half and couldn't knock them down," Rupp said. "We made some runs at them. That's a really good team and a veteran team."

Free throws were another difference maker in the game as Tech shot just four free throws and made three of them while Utah State was 16-of-18 from the charity stripe.

Tech shot 42.9 percent from the field including 28.6 percent (6-21) from three-point range. USU shot 46.2 percent including 25 percent (4-16) from beyond the arc.

Tai Wesley led five Aggies in double-figures with 14 points.

Louisiana Tech will attempt to break a seven-game losing streak at Nevada on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. CT.