RUSTON – Louisiana Tech will play its last non-conference game on the road Sunday when the Bulldogs face rival UL-Lafayette.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: Sunday, Dec. 8 | 3:30 p.m. CT
Location: Cajundome (Lafayette, La.)
TV: ESPN+
Radio: LA Tech Sports Network | LA Tech Athletics App
 
ABOUT LOUISIANA TECH (7-2)
A tie game with seven minutes to go, LA Tech could not pull the upset as the Bulldogs fell, 81-71, to 16th-ranked Memphis on Wednesday. The 'Dogs committed a season-high 20 turnovers that resulted in 31 points for the Tigers.
 
Going up against the top three-point shooting team in the country in Memphis, LA Tech showed it can shoot from long range as well as the Bulldogs made a season-high 13 triples while shooting a season-best 56.5 percent from deep. LA Tech, who is shooting 37.1 percent from deep, has made at least nine three-pointers in six games this season.
 
Daniel Batcho extended his streak of consecutive games scoring in double figures to 16 after scoring 12 points against Memphis. The power forward, averaging a team-best 19.2 points per game, ranks first in the country in field goal percentage at 74.1 percent. Defensively, he ranks top three in total blocks (27) and blocks per game (3.00). The two-time CUSA Player of the Week has registered six blocks in each of his last two games and is just six blocks away from becoming the eighth Bulldog in program history with 100 blocks.
 
Al Green was big off the bench for the Bulldogs yet again for the Bulldogs, scoring a team-high 18 points versus the Tigers while going 5-of-7 from three. He has made 10 triples in the last two games and is now averaging 10.1 points per game as the sixth man off the bench. Despite not starting, he has played 29+ minutes in five of the last seven games including a season-high 32 minutes at Memphis.
 
Amaree Abram and Kaden Cooper continue to get things done on the defensive end, combining for 45 of the team's 79 steals. Abram has had at least one steal in all nine games with his 23 steals (had a career-high six versus SIU) ranking ninth in the country. Meanwhile, Cooper's 22 steals ranks 18th in the nation, having recorded at least four steals in four contests. Cooper also leads the Bulldogs in rebounding at 8.0 boards per contest, rank­ing 50th in the country in defensive rebounds per game (6.22). He has led LA Tech in rebounding six times this season.
 
Sean Newman Jr. continues to be one of the top passers in college basketball. He has 81 total on the season, including 11 at No. 16 Memphis, for an average of 9.0 dimes per game, both ranking second in the nation. The redshirt junior reached 200 career assists as a Bulldog versus Richmond, tying for the fastest to 200 ever at LA Tech (needed just 34 games to do it). He has recorded at least 10 assists in four games this season.
 
ABOUT UL-LAFAYETTE (1-7)
UL-Lafayette is coming off a 19-14 season last year, finishing fifth in the Sun Belt Conference standings. The Ragin' Cajuns, which finished with a NET ranking of 150, was picked to fin­ish fourth in the SBC behind Arkansas State, James Madison, and Troy.
 
ULL picked up an 82-65 win over UT Dallas in the second game of the season, but the Ragin' Cajuns have dropped all seven of their other matchups. The season so far has been bookended by narrow home losses, falling to Kent State, 70- 66, in the season opener and most recently a 76-75 loss to Nicholls. Prior to the loss to the Colonels, the Cajuns went winless in the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam, falling to Liberty, George Washington, and UAB.
 
UL-Lafayette's tough start has been partly due to the absence of Hosana Kitenge. It was an­nounced in mid-October that the power for­ward would miss the season due to injury. He was voted by the league head coaches as a preseason First Team All-Sun Belt selection after averaging 13.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game for the Cajuns last season, which earned him in Third Team All-SBC honors.
 
The Ragin' Cajuns have four players averag­ing at least eight points per game, anchored by Indiana River State transfer Mostapha El Moutaouakkil (has scored 19 points in three straight games) and Oregon State transfer Christian Wright at 12.5 and 12.1 points per game, respectively.
 
ULL has been aggressive on defense, aver­aging 8.0 steals per game while having a 2.8 turnover margin that ranks 70th in the nation.
 
THE SERIES
LA Tech and ULL are meeting for the 170th time in recorded history on Sunday with the Bulldogs leading, 92-77. The in-state rivalry be­came almost a century ago in 1926 when the two programs joined the Southern Intercol­legiate Athletic Association (SIAA). They have been conference rivals in six different leagues, all the way up until 2001 when the Bulldogs left the Sun Belt Conference to join the West­ern Athletic Conference.
 
The two programs have faced off as non-con­ference foes 17 times, including every sea­son since 2013 when they began a constant home-and-home series. Since then, the Ca­juns own a slim 6-5 advantage.
 
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