Dec. 11, 2005

Box Score

Ralph Hishaw added 14 points for Southern (1-6). Jerrid Campbell had 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Both teams got off to a slow start, as the Bulldogs took an early 11-4 lead over ten minutes into the contest. SU shot a dismal 14% thru the first part of the first half. Then, the Jaguars used a tough zone defense that gave La Tech problems, and forced turnovers and one-shot opportunities, and closed the first half on a 16-8 run to take a 20-19 halftime lead.

The La Tech Bulldogs battled back to regain the lead at 27-26 on a lay-up by forward Paul Millsap with 16 minutes remaining in the game, but it was Tech's final lead of the game, as Southern's Alvin Mott made a lay-up on the ensuing possession.

The Jaguars never relinquished the lead after that point, pushing the margin to its highest point with the final score at 63-47.

"This was a tremendous win for our program," said an estatic Rob Spivery. "I thought we played great defense tonight, and we dug down deep and played hard for the full 40 minutes."

"Obviously, with them just coming off of beating a very good Texas Tech team, we knew we were going to be in for a dogfight. We played them tough at their place last week, so I knew if we played together, like a family and a close knit team, we could pull this one off."

SU also committed the least amount of turnovers all season -- 9, and had a season high 10 steals.

Louisiana Tech committed 18 turnovers that led to 19 points for Southern University. Entering the contest, the Jaguars were only shooting 60%from the free throw line for the season, but Southern made 14 of 16 (.875 percent) compared to Tech's six of 14 (.429 percent).

Freshman, Steffon Wiley, had his best collegiate game, scoring a career-high nine points. Senior Peter Cipriano had five points and six rebounds.

Paul Millsap led Louisiana Tech (4-4) with 15 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out after 27 minutes of play. He was the only player for Tech to hit double digits.

"What we have to do now, is learn from this and hopefully move forward. We have a tough stretch yet to play (refering to games at #8 Oklahoma, and Tulsa next week, and Xavier (OH) on the 29th). but this is an excellent win for Southern Univerity, the men's basketball program and our fans."

Southern is off until they hook up with the #8 ranked Oklahoma Sooners in Norman, Ok, on December 17th. They will then take on Tulsa on December 19th, before taking a short Christmas break and returning to play Xavier on the 29th.