RUSTON – Louisiana Tech earned the No. 2 seed and will take on No. 7 seed Middle Tennessee in the CUSA Basketball Championship quarterfinals on Wednesday night inside VBC Propst Arena.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 13 | 8 p.m. CT
Location: VBC Propst Arena (Huntsville, Ala.)
TV: ESPN+
Radio: LA Tech Sports Network | LA Tech Athletics app
 
ABOUT LOUISIANA TECH (22-9)
LA Tech will be looking for the same result against Middle Tennessee as the Bulldogs closed out the regular season with an 84-70 win over the Blue Raiders in Ruston.
 
The 'Dogs led wire-to-wire, winning with defense (held the Blue Raiders to 37.7 percent shooting) and controlling the paint (+11 rebounding margin and +28 paint points). It was the scoring trio of Isaiah Crawford, Daniel Batcho, and Tahlik Chavez that combined for 57 points, each registering 19.
 
All three earned postseason accolades, led by Crawford who was named CUSA Player of the Year, CUSA Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-CUSA, and CUSA All-Defensive Team.
 
The fifth-year senior is averaging 16.5 points (second in the league) while shooting 49.7 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from beyond the arc. He also ranked in the top three in the league and top 50 in the country in steals per game (2.13) and blocks per game (1.77). 
 
Batcho was named CUSA Newcomer of the Year, First Team All-CUSA, and CUSA All-Defensive Team. The transfer has played a major part in the Bulldogs success, averaging 14.9 points, 9.8 rebounds (ranks 23rd in the country), and 2.4 blocks per game (ranks eighth in the country).
 
Chavez was named Third Team All-CUSA, averaging 13.8 points per game but upped that average to 16.1 points during league action, which ranked fourth in CUSA. He has dome most of his scoring damage from three-point range where he is shooting 40.8 percent, which ranks first in CUSA and 30th in the nation.   
 
Sean Newman Jr. was the fourth Bulldog to receive postseason honors, earning Honorable Mention All-CUSA. The point guard is averaging 7.2 points per game as well as a league-best 5.2 assists per contest, a stat that ranks first in the conference and top 40 in the country.
 
LA Tech is set for play in its 10th Conference USA Tournament, having compiled an 11-9 record. Of the nine tournaments, the Bulldogs have won at least one game in eight of them and advanced to the semifinals five times. 
 
 
ABOUT MIDDLE TENNESSEE (13-18)
Middle Tennessee finished the season in a four-way tie for fourth in the league standings with a 7-9 record.  As a result of tiebreakers, the Blue Raiders earned the No. 7 seed in the CUSA Tournament. The Blue Raiders lost their first four conference games but won seven of their last 12.
 
Middle Tennessee has been getting to the free throw line a lot in league play and have been cashing in. The Blue Raiders ranked second in league play in free throw percentage at 74.2.  They got to the free throw line 29 times against LA Tech, making 23 of them.  They have now shot at least 79 percent from the foul line in five of their last seven contests.
 
Middle Tennessee is led by a trio of Blue Raid­ers -- Jestin Porter, Elias King, and Jared Cole­man-Jones. Porter, who was voted Second Team All-CUSA, leads the way with an average of 13.7 points per game. During league play, the guard av­eraged 17.0 points per contest which ranked third best in the conference. King was named Honorable Mention All-CUSA, averaging 12.9 points per game. The guard recorded 19 points and 11 rebounds versus LA Tech in his last outing.
 
Coleman-Jones, a Third Team All-CUSA se­lection, is averaging 11.1 points as well as a team-high 7.5 rebounds per game. He has registered seven double-doubles of the sea­son, second most in the league.
 
THE SERIES
LA Tech leads the all-time series over Middle Tennessee, 15-7. The Bulldogs swept the season series with the Blue Raiders, winning 60-52 and 84-70.
 
Even though LA Tech and Middle Tennessee have been in the same league for 12 years (11 in CUSA and one in Sun Belt), this will mark the first time the two teams will face off in a conference tournament.
 
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