RUSTON, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team started to get
Alec Woodard in a rhythm from distance as he hit a season-high four threes, but it couldn't overcome the barrage of threes put up by Louisiana Tech as the Lions fell to the Bulldogs 89-60 Tuesday evening at Karl Malone Court at the Thomas Assembly Center.
Southeastern (2-8) never led in the contest as Louisiana Tech (9-2) scored the game's first eight points before
Brody Rowbury hit a pair of free throws to break the seal for the Lions with 16:47 remaining in the first half. While facing a double-digit deficit early, SLU didn't allow the Bulldogs to pull away. After falling behind by 12, a
Roger McFarlane three cut the deficit to 14-5 with 14:30 to go in the half. Later, Woodard's first three of the game cut an 11-point deficit down to eight by making the score 16-8 with 13:15 to go in the period.
Avery Wilson cut to the paint and scored while being fouled for an old-fashioned three-point play which made the score 24-15 Louisiana Tech after Wilson made the free throw with 9:30 left before halftime. The Bulldogs pushed the lead out to 18 points in the first half with just more than two minutes left before McFarlane and
Nick Caldwell hit back-to-back threes to cut the deficit to 12 at 39-27. However, Louisiana Tech scored the last five points of the half to take a 44-27 lead into the halftime locker room.
Caldwell hit a jump hook to open the second half scoring, making the score 44-29, but that would be as close as the Lions got the rest of the way. However, Louisiana Tech went on a 22-12 push from there to open up a 25-point advantage at 66-41. From that point on, the Bulldogs answered each little spurt Southeastern tried to put together, keeping the advantage over SLU above 20 points throughout the remainder of the contest. A split pair of free throws with 1:28 left gave the Bulldogs their largest lead of the game while also representing the game's last point scored.
Woodard doubled his best three-point shooting day of the season, hitting four threes on his way to a team-high 16 points. He also grabbed four rebounds and had three steals on the evening. Caldwell continued asserting himself for the Lions, finishing with 13 points to mark his fourth-straight game of at least 10 points. He hit six of his 11 field goal attempts, including one-of-two from deep, grabbed five rebounds, and blocked two Bulldog shots. McFarlane finished the game with eight points and five rebounds while Rowbury threated a double-double for a second-straight game, ending the night with eight points and eight rebounds.
As a team, Southeastern hit 23 of its 61 shot attempts, finishing at a 37.7% shooting percentage. SLU hit eight of their 26 attempts from deep, finishing at 30.8% from long range. Louisiana Tech hit 31 of their 67 shot attempts for a 46.3% shooting percentage at the end of the evening while hitting 14 of their 26 attempts from three, a 53.8% clip from deep.
The Lions finish the four-game road trip, and run of nine out of 10 games away from home, on Saturday with a trip to Kentucky to face Murray State. Tip-off of Saturday's contest against the Racers (3-5) is set for 3:00 p.m. in the CFSB Center. The game between SLU and Murray State will be live streamed on ESPN+ with a radio broadcast available through the Southeastern Sports Radio Network on 90.9 FM The Lion in the Hammond/Ponchatoula area and worldwide on LionSports.net/ListenLive and LionUpRadio.org. The broadcast can also be heard on the smart device through the Lions Gameday Experience app, the TuneInRadio app, or the MyTuner Radio app. Live stats will also be available.
HARDWOOD CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the basketball program are encouraged to join the Hardwood Club. Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letterwinners. All membership fees and donations to Hardwood Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern basketball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at
laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting
www.LionUp.com.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Basketball, follow @LionUpMBB and @DavidKieferSLU on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit
www.LionSports.net/tickets. Southeastern is implementing mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets. All tickets will be available via e-mail in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.
