Bulldogs win NOLA tournament
NEW ORLEANS — Two regular season tournaments and two titles for freshman guard Exavian Christon and the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.
Louisiana Tech brought home its second trophy of the year on Friday afternoon as the Bulldogs pulled away from Fort Wayne in the final minutes to claim an 85-76 victory in the inaugural New Orleans Shootout championship at the Xavier Convocation Center.
Despite the adversity of injuries and illness, Lousiana Tech ( 9- 4) was able to close out the non-conference season strong by picking up victories in the Big Easy.
Senior guard Jacobi Boykins was named to the All-Tournament Team after hitting six three-pointers and tying his season-high with 23 points.
Sophomore guard DaQuan Brac- ey was selected as the Tournament MVP with a career-high 25 points, scoring and assisting on the final nine points to seal the win over Fort Wayne ( 9- 6) who had won
three straight, including a 20-point win at Indiana.
“I am so proud of our guys,” Louisiana Tech coach Eric Konkol said. “We are battling a lot of adversity right now. The guys stepped up for each and that is really what this game is all about. These guys did this for each other and were able to come away with a win against a really good team.
“This was a great test for us today. We faced an opponent that posed a lot of challenges for us. We were able to get our guys more experiencing which is what non-conference play is about. I feel this non-conference slate has really tested us.”
Christon earned his second start in a row and his second career start overall. The former Hot Springs standout was on the floor for 24 minutes and finished with seven points on 2-for-11 shooting. He also grabbed six rebounds, second- most on the team.
Clinging to a 24-22 advantage, the Bulldogs got two 3- pointers from Boykins and junior guard Derric Jean, plus a thundering one-handed dunk by sophomore forward Oliver Powell to go on an 8-2 run and take an eightpoint advantage.
Eight points would be the halftime lead for Louisiana Tech thanks to Powell tipping in a basket on an offensive rebound right before the buzzer sounded, giving him 13 points at intermission. He finished with a career-high 17 points.
The ‘ Dogs ended up building a 12-point edge with 15:39 to play when Jean grabbed the steal and took it the distance for a slam dunk.
The Mastodons refused to go away though, putting together a mini 7-0 run to get back to within two possessions. The lead was at four points midway through the second stanza, but Louisiana Tech hit three straight triples courtesy of Jean, Boykins and Bracey beating the shot clock. The Bulldogs went on to build a 73- 60 advantage with 5: 39, putting themselves in position to run away with the game.
Then came Fort Wayne. The Mastodons went on a 14-3 run over the next two-plus minutes to cut the deficit down to two points with still 3:25 to play in the game.
After the media timeout, it became the “DayDay” show. First, he was fouled on a 3-point attempt and knocked down all three free throws. He then turned back-to-back defen- sive stops into a driving layup and two more free throws from the charity stripe.
The exclamation came with 29 seconds remaining with Bracey grabbed the steal and dished it up to Christon, who threw down the dunk. For the final three minutes, the Mastodons were held to zero field goals.
“Jacobi and DaQuan really led us today,” Konkol said. “I thought on both ends, they made things difficult for our opponent. They executed and offensively, when we needed big plays, they were able to deliver.”
Louisiana Tech ended up shooting 53 percent from the field, 31-for59, and 50 percent from three-point range, 10-for-20. They also knocked down 13 of 17 free throws.
Fort Wayne was 26 of 55 from the field, 47 percent, and 10 of 27 from deep, 37 percent. Senior guard Bryson Scott finished with a game-high 27 points.
The Bulldogs will have a few days off for Christmas break and then travel to Bowling Green, Ky., to take on Western Kentucky on Thursday to begin Conference USA play. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.