Bulldogs aiming for first road league win
RUSTON, La. – The Louisiana Tech men’s basketball team will wrap up a three-game road stretch today when they make the short trek to take on Southern Miss at 4 p.m. inside Reed Green Coliseum.
It was a different day, but it was the same story for Louisiana Tech (15-9, 5-6 C-USA) in its last outing. The Bulldogs were in prime position to take a road victory, but the team struggled down the stretch and dropped its sixth straight game away from home.
An already-undermanned Bulldog squad was forced to play without yet another player in freshman Stacey Thomas. Despite this, they led Florida International by two with less than four minutes to go, but the Panthers ended the contest on an 11-3 run to take the 75-69 victory in Miami.
Sophomore Anthony Duruji was the star of the game for the Bulldogs.
He recorded his second career double-double, scoring a team-high 16 points and pulling down a career-high 14 rebounds.
It was the most rebounds by a Bulldog in a road game in almost five years.
The forward is currently leading the team in rebounds per game (6.0) and ranks second in scoring (12.4) behind only junior DaQuan Bracey (14.2) who is gradually creeping up on 1,000 career points.
This setback, along with the rest of the results around the league, has put Louisiana Tech in a fourway tie for eighth place with three games remaining prior to bonus play beginning. The Bulldogs still have a shot at making the top pod of 1-5 as they are only one game back of fifth place.
To do so though, they will have to get their first conference road win and do it against one of the hottest teams in C-USA right now in Southern Miss (14-9, 6-5 C-USA).
After getting off to an 0-3 start in league play, the Golden Eagles have won six of their last eight games.
They recently went on the road and swept the Florida schools, winning 89-73 over FIU and 74-72 at Florida Atlantic.
The Golden Eagles do
two things extremely well.
They take care of the basketball, ranking seventh in the country in turnovers per game (9.9).
And they defend at a high level, ranking in the top 35 in the nation in scoring defense (64.5) and field goal percentage defense (39.9).
The backcourt senior duo of Cortez Edwards and Tyree Griffin continue to anchor the squad. They are averaging 14.0 and 12.9 points per game, respectively, and have combined for 239 assists and 96 steals.
Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss will meet for a second time this season.
Back in late December, the Bulldogs got 23 points from Duruji and hit a combined 12 three-pointers while holding Edwards and Griffin to a combined 13 points, ultimately winning 71-56 in Ruston.
Saturday will be the 83rd meeting all time. Louisiana Tech has won three of the last four meetings in Hattiesburg.