RUSTON – The Louisiana Tech men's basketball team heads to the west coast on Saturday to battle Santa Clara at 4 p.m. CT inside Leavey Center.  It is the Bulldogs first trip to California since 2016 when they played Cal and their fourth trip to the Bay Area in the last 10 years.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 4 | 4 p.m. CT
Location: Leavey Center (Santa Clara, Calif.)
TV/Stream: WCC Network (HERE)
Radio: 107.5 FM or LA Tech Athletics app
Stats: LATechSports.com (HERE)
 
ABOUT LOUISIANA TECH (5-2)
LA Tech played arguably its best game of the season this past Wednesday, defeating Texas Southern by a final score of 87-60. The Bulldogs scored at all three levels, shoot­ing 53.2 percent from the field while making 10 three-pointers and sinking 11 of their 13 free throws. On defense, they allowed the fewest points this season.
 
The Bulldogs currently rank 42nd in the country in scoring offense at 81.7 points per game, having put up 80+ points in each of their last five games which is something that has only been done four times in the last 30 years. They have also scored 40+ points in nine of their last 10 halves.
 
David Green had a breakout performance against TSU, recording a career-high 19 points while hitting five three-pointers. He is the fifth different Bulldog to lead the team in scoring in a game this season and the ninth player to record double-digit points.
 
Kenneth Lofton, Jr. continues to lead the team in points (17.7) and rebounds (10.7).  Amorie Archibald and Keaston Willis are also averaging double-digit points at 12.3 and 12.1 points per game, respectively.
 
ABOUT SANTA CLARA (6-2)
Santa Clara opened the season on a five-game winning streak, including victories over Stanford, Nevada and TCU. The Broncos then suffered back-to-back close defeats to Fresno State and UC Irvine before downing Hawai'i by a final score of 70-58 this past Tuesday to improve to 6-2 on the season and 5-1 at home.
 
During their five-game winning streak, San­ta Clara was averaging 88.0 points per game. Over their last three games, they are only aver­aging 62.0 points per game.
 
The Broncos rank 13th in the country in both field goal percentage (50.8) and three-point field goal percentage (40.9). They also share the basketball a lot, having totaled 134 assists for an average of 16.8 per game.
 
Four Broncos are averaging double-digit points this season, anchored by Jalen Williams at 19.1 points per game. He is shooting 54 percent from the field and has made 34 free throws this season. Keshawn Justice (14.8) and PJ Pipes (13.3) are two other Broncos sc­oring in double-figures while Josip Vrankic, who is averaging 16.3 points, has missed the last five games.
 
THE SERIES
This is the first ever meeting between LA Tech and Santa Clara.  Of the 10 current West Coast Conference programs, the Bulldogs have played four of them (BYU, Pepperdine, Saint Mary's and San Francisco).  The most recent meeting was 2013 when LA Tech played the Gaels in Moraga.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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