SAN ANTONIO — Amorie Archibald poured in a career-high 31 points to propel Louisiana Tech to a 79-63 victory over Texas-San Antonio on Saturday afternoon inside the Convocation Center.
LA Tech (13-3, 4-0 C-USA) extended its winning streak to five and remained perfect in Conference USA play, sweeping the UTEP/UTSA trip for just the third time ever.
Both teams traded early runs and found themselves tied up at 16-16 midway through the first half. And just like against the Miners on Thursday, the Bulldogs kicked things into another gear offensively the rest of the stanza, making 10 of their next 15 field goal attempts to build a 40-26 halftime lead.
Archibald and Cobe Williams combined for 26 points in the first half. The fifth-year senior made six of his seven shot attempts through the first 20 minutes and he stayed on fire, making back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the second half, forcing a timeout by UTSA (7-9, 0-3 C-USA) to give the ’Dogs a 51-30 advantage.
“Amorie was special today,” said Tech coach Eric Konkol. “He has played at a high level in so many games this season and in his career. He can do a little bit of everything. Today, he shot the cover off the basketball. We played a low turnover game. Coming off of Thursday’s game when we turned it over so much, we talked so much about taking care of the basketball today. It took us a little bit to figure out their zone, but the guys did a nice job of hitting the elbows, making some nice passes out of the post. The team played very unselfishly and found some great shots.”
The lead ballooned to as much as 23 (67-44) at the 9:34 mark when David Green threw down a two-handed dunk.
LA Tech shot 48.4 percent from the field (48.4) and 50.0 percent from three (14-28) while committing only seven turnovers and racking up 19 assists. Archibald went 12-of-14 from the field and made all six of his 3-pointers, becoming just the second player in program history to go 6-of-6 from deep.
Williams was efficient again, finishing in double-figures for the fifth straight game with 15 (career-high five threes).
Kenneth Lofton, Jr. registered his ninth double-double of the season (third straight) with 12 points for the Dunkin’ Dogs along with a game-high 16 rebounds as well as a career-high five assists.
The Roadrunners shot 42.4 percent from the field and were limited to five made 3-pointers. Jordan Ivy-Curry scored a team-high 22 points.
