RUSTON – Louisiana Tech will close out the regular season at Delaware on Satur­day afternoon inside Bob Carpenter Center.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: Saturday, March 7 | 11 a.m. CT
Location: Bob Carpenter Center (Newark, Del.)
TV: ESPN+
Radio: LA Tech Sports Network | LA Tech Athletics app
 
ABOUT LOUISIANA TECH (17-13, 10-9 CUSA)
Louisiana Tech recorded one of its biggest wins of the season as the Bulldogs upset first-place Liberty, 76-71, on Thursday night inside Liberty Arena. LA Tech never trailed in the contest, silencing the home crowd against a Liberty team that entered the night having already won the outright regular season title and had only one home loss.
 
Liberty tied the game up at 65-65 with 7:07 to go, but the Bulldogs limited the Flames to just two made field goals the rest of the way while outscoring them 11-6. It was the first time the Flames never led in a home game since Jan. 23, 2018, versus Campbell.
 
With just one conference game remaining, LA Tech is in a three-way tie for fourth in the league standings along with Middle Tennessee and Kennesaw State. The top 10 teams qualify for the Conference USA Tournament with the top six getting a first-round bye. The event, held in Huntsville, Alabama for a third straight year, runs March 10-14.
 
The top defense in the league came to play, holding the Flames, who came into the game ranked top five in the country in field goal percent­age, to just 41.8 percent shooting from the field. It was their second lowest shooting percentage this season (lowest at home). LA Tech currently ranks top 15 in the country in both scoring defense (65.5) and field goal percentage defense (39.4). They rank first in both categories during conference play only as well.
 
LA Tech dominated the paint at Liberty, outrebounding the Flames 36- 26 while also outscoring them 32-14 in the paint. The Bulldogs have out­rebounded 20 of their 30 opponents this season. They have also scored 30+ paint points 22 times (have done so in 13 of 19 league games).
 
AJ Bates had his best performance as a Bulldog, recording a career-high 34 points on 13-of-23 shooting, including 6-of-11 from three-point range, while adding four rebounds, four assists, and three steals in a full 40-minute effort. It was the second highest scored by a Bulldog in a road game behind only Alex Hamilton's 38 at Marshall in 2016 and the most points scored by a Bulldog in a road game since Kenneth Lofton Jr.'s 36 at NC State in 2021. It also tied for the second most points scored by any CUSA player this season.
 
With the four assists against Liberty, that gave AJ Bates 173 for the season which is now tied for the 10th most in a single season in pro­gram history. The sophomore has registered at least four dimes in 24 of the 30 games this season.
 
Jaylen Fenner was a key contributor at Liberty, reaching double-digit points for the third straight contest with 11. He also led the Bulldogs in rebounding with eight boards. Over the last three games, the freshman is averaging 16.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game.
 
DJ Dudley was on pace for another strong scoring performance. The team's leading scorer at 14.2 points per game had nine through 17 min­utes against Liberty before suffering an injury that forced him out the remainder of the game. Even so, he has registered seven 20+ scoring performances during league action. And over the last five contests, the junior is averaging 17.6 points while shooting 47.1 percent from the field and 41.2 percent from three-point range.
 
ABOUT DELAWARE (10-20, 6-13 CUSA)
Delaware kept its postseason hopes alive on Thursday with an 83-80 upset victory over Sam Houston. The Blue Hens, who had lost four in a row to put them in last place in the conference standings, snapped the losing skid by giving the Bearkats just their second defeat in the last 14 league games.
 
In the game, Delaware shot 51.7 percent over­all and 51.9 percent from three-point range, tying its season best with 14 made triples. The win put the Blue Hens a game back of FIU, New Mexico State, and UTEP as those four are fighting for the last two spots into the Confer­ence USA Tournament.
 
Delaware has been riddled with injuries this season. Most noticeably, Cavan Reilly who was a primary starter for the Blue Hens the last two seasons. The CUSA All-Preseason Team selec­tion suffered a season-ending injury in the first game of the season. If things could not get worse, the Blue Hens Tyler Houser also went down with a sea­son-ending injury back in mid-February. The forward was averaging 14.2 points and 5.4 re­bounds per game.
 
Despite the injuries, Delaware has one of the top one-two punches in the conference in Christian Bliss and Justyn Fernandez. Both players rarely see the floor, ranking in the top five in the nation in minutes played per game. Bliss stuffing the stat sheet with an average of 16.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game while Fernandez is averaging a team-high 17.1 points per contest.
Both do damage at all three levels.
 
They have hit 64 three-pointers each on the season and both shoot a high percentage clip at the free throw line, a place where Delaware as a team ranks 10th in the country in free throw per­centage (78.5).
 
THE SERIES
LA Tech and Delaware have only faced off twice with each team winning once. The Bulldogs prevailed 70-68 in overtime back in January in Ruston. This will be LA Tech's second trip to the state of Delaware. The previous time was 2018 when they lost to UNC Greensboro and Delaware as part of the Delaware Invitational during non-conference play.
 
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