RUSTON, Louisiana – Louisiana Tech begins a four-game home stand on Monday night when it takes on Prairie View A&M in the final non-conference game of the season set for a 6:30 p.m. tipoff inside the Thomas Assembly Center.
LA Tech (10-2) is coming off a three-day break from basketball for Christmas, returning to Ruston on Saturday to begin prep for the last tune-up before Conference USA play begins in less than a week.
GameDay Central | Game Notes
“Our team has been focused on daily improvement and that has continued,” head coach Eric Konkol said. “We lifted, watched video and practiced Saturday and the attention to detail was strong after an extended break. This is a great time of year to spend more time on the areas we need to improve.
“Our focus right now is solely on improvement and preparing for Prairie View A&M. We certainly want to play well in our last non-conference game and use this as another opportunity to get ready for C-USA play.”
The Bulldogs went home for the holidays fairly happy after picking up a 66-63 road win over Florida Gulf Coast last Tuesday.
In was a return to the Sunshine State for five players, one of which was Alex Hamilton who had a nice homecoming by scoring a game-high 26 points on 12-of-16 shooting.
It marked the 10th victory of the season and one that was different from the other nine in that it was a grind-it-out, defensive battle. The Bulldogs have been more accustomed to offensive shootouts, but they were able to limit the Eagles to just 63 points on their home floor.
It was only FGCU’s 10th home loss since the 2012-13 season. Meanwhile, LA Tech looks to extend their 37-game home winning streak on Monday night when it faces a winless Prairie View A&M (0-11) team.
“Prairie View A&M changes defenses often and is No. 26 in the country at forcing turnovers,” Konkol said. “They have challenged themselves in difficult environments all year by playing the 15th strongest schedule and just one home game. They will play very hard and have some gifted offensive players.
The Panthers have played nine of their 11 non-conference games so far on the road against the likes of VCU, Houston, UNLV, Wisconsin, Baylor, TCU and Tulane. The most recent game came in an 80-51 loss at Nebraska.
PVAM has two players averaging double figures in scoring -- Tevin Bellinger at 12.8 points per game and Admassu Williams at 11.6 points per game. Both players have started all 11 games.
This will be the fourth and final SWAC opponent that LA Tech will face this season after previously taking on Grambling State, Jackson State and Southern.
Fans can access live video and audio of the game via the Internet by subscribing to LA Tech All-Access at LATechSports.com. The game can be heard live on the LA Tech Sports Network on KXKZ 107.5 FM (Ruston), KRMD 1340 AM (Shreveport), KJVC 92.7 FM (Mansfield) and KTKC 92.9 FM (Springhill). The “Voice of the Bulldogs” Dave Nitz will call the play-by-play and Jack Thigpen will provide analysis.
Twitter users can also receive live in-game updates by following @LATechHoops.
COURTESY LOUISIANA TECH ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS
No comments:
Post a Comment