Nov. 25, 2011
Final Stats
LARAMIE, Wyo. - Behind 14 second-half points from senior guard Trevor Gaskins (Alpharetta, Ga.), the Louisiana Tech men's basketball team (2-1) defeated Maryland Eastern Shore (1-5) 73-54 in the first game of the Jim Thorpe Classic Friday afternoon at Arena-Auditorium in Laramie, Wyo. as five Bulldogs scored in double-figures.
"We played our best 20 minutes of the season in the second half tonight," said head coach Michael White.
Gaskins led Tech in scoring with 15 while junior forward J.L. Lewis (Gonzales, La.) added a career-high 13. Senior Romario Souza (Mias Gerias, Brazil added 11 in his first start of the season.
"Romario is a great story as he earned a starting position after spending three months in Brazil this past summer and coming back overweight," White said.
Sophomore guard Cordarius Johnson (Coushatta, La.) and freshman forward Michale Kyser (Lancaster, Texas) added 12 and 10 points, respectively.
The game began with the Bulldogs up 1-0 after a free throw from Gaskins when a technical foul was accessed on the Hawks for getting starters in late. Tech ran out to a 19-12 lead after a dunk from Kyser and behind five points from Souza and four points from Johnson.
UMES went on a 7-0 run over the next 1:35 to tie the game at 19-19 before a free throw from Lewis broke the tie. After a jumper from Kyser gave Tech a 27-21 at the 3:53 mark, the Bulldogs were outscored 10-2 the rest of the period as the Tech trailed 31-29 at halftime.
The second half began with stifling defense from the Bulldogs as they held the Hawks without a field goal for the first 8:32. During that time Tech went up 43-35 on a 14-4 run with Gaskins scoring six.
UMES came back to cut the Bulldogs advantage to seven, 58-51, with 5:48 left in the second half. That was as close as the Hawks would get as Tech ended the game on a 15-3 run.
The Bulldogs shot 25-56 (46.4%) for the game including 17-29 (58.6%) in the second half while UMES was held to 18-47 (38.3%) from the field and 8-27 (29.6%) during the second half.
Tech went 14-24 from the free throw line with the 24 attempts more than doubling the team's total entering the contest.
The Jim Thorpe Classic continues for the Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. CT as they take on Portland State.
The action can be heard on ESPN 97.7 FM and on LA Tech All-Accesss with Kyle Roberts calling the action. Twitter users get game updates by following sports information director Phillip Pongratz at www.twitter.com/LATechPPongratz.
