LA Tech downs Our Lady of the Lake to claim win No. 20 in regular season finale

RUSTON – The standard of excellence continues at Louisiana Tech as the Bulldogs claimed win No. 20 on the season with a 99-66 victory over Our Lady of the Lake on Wednesday night inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court.

There was doubt at the beginning of the 2020-21 season that LA Tech (20-6) would even play 20 games. They ended up playing 26 and reached 20 victories for the eighth time in the last nine seasons.

“You want to play well while having a lot of guys get playing time. Overall, we satisfied a lot of things. Guys got a lot of opportunity to be in different situations. We wanted to stay in some type of game rhythm.

“There is great tradition in this program. The number of very talented players that have come through here. That has been going on for a while and I am proud to be a part of it. In this particular year, we did not know if we would play 20 games. To be able to play 26 games this year is remarkable. This team has found a number of ways to produce 20 wins. I am proud of them and we will continue to pursue more.”

All twelve active players saw at least 10 minutes of action against OLLU (1-8) who made things interesting in the early going.

The Saints made seven of their first 10 field goals, the last one being a three-pointer by Ethan White to give the visitors a 17-15 lead with 13:18 to play in the first half.

From then on, the Bulldog defense quickly stopped that momentum in its tracks, allowing just three made field goals the remainder of the stanza. Then offensively during that same stretch, the ‘Dogs made 17 of their last 25 shots before halftime to take a sizeable 56-24 lead into the locker room.

The scoring came from several people during that 41-7 run. Kalob Ledoux swished three threes. Kenneth Lofton, Jr. and Isaiah Crawford bullied their way to 11 and nine points, respectively. Stacey Thomas checked in and made all three of his field goal attempts.

After making 26 in the last two games, LA Tech accounted for 11 triples against OLLU. Three of those came early in the second half by Crawford, Amorie Archibald and Exavian Christon. Christon’s three gave the Bulldogs their largest lead of the game at 72-33 with 14:41 left to go.

Speaking of threes, Xaiver Armstead drained three as well in route to a career-high and team-high 16 points. Crawford finished with 13 points. The two freshmen – Lofton, Jr. and Kenny Hunter – each had 11 points and nine rebounds. The fifth Bulldog in double-figures was Thomas with a career-high 10 points.

LA Tech dished out 21 assists, including a game-high five by Archibald who cracked the top 10 list for career assists in program history (has 359). The team recorded 48 rebounds, eight steals and a season-high seven blocks.

OLLU was led in scoring by White who had a game-high 27 points.

Next up for LA Tech is the Conference USA Tournament in Frisco, Texas at The Star. The Bulldogs will play on Thursday, March 11 in the quarterfinals against an opponent to be determined.

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