SAN ANTONIO – UTSA hit a program-record 18 three-pointers and Jhivvan Jackson poured in 37 points to help hand Louisiana Tech its first conference loss of the season, an 89-73 setback on Thursday night inside the Convocation Center.
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LA Tech (11-4, 2-1 C-USA) was ambushed from the get-go by UTSA (7-9, 1-2 C-USA) as the Roadrunners made 17 of their first 23 shot attempts to build a massive 46-21 lead through the first 15 minutes of action.
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After being down by as much as 29 early in the second half, the Bulldogs made a couple of strong runs to slice into the deficit. However, it was a deficit that was too big to overcome.
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"I thought we came out playing hard, but I didn't think we were crisp with our execution with what we really wanted to do," said head coach
Eric Konkol.  "Sometimes if you leave just a crack against a really good scoring team, they can build confidence quickly and it did for their entire team. We just could not stop enough guys on their team to make it competitive."
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The 'Dogs put together an 11-0 run early in the second stanza to trail 59-41, but the Roadrunners answered with back-to-back threes.Â
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LA Tech made a 7-0 run a couple of minutes later and were on the verge of getting back into the game, behind 64-46 with 12:08 to go. But once again, UTSA responded with back-to-back threes (both by Jackson who hit eight on the night).Â
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The shooting percentages ended up being nearly a wash as the Bulldogs shot 48 percent while the Roadrunners shot 49 percent. The big difference was the outside shooting as UTSA made 12 more threes than LA Tech.
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DaQuan Bracey and
Kalob Ledoux each scored 12 points and
Derric Jean tacked on 11.Â
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LA Tech will now head to El Paso on Saturday, Jan. 11 to take on the UTEP Miners. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. CT on ESPN+.
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