By Kane McGuire, Louisiana Tech Associate Athletic Director/Strategic Communications
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Louisiana Tech got back to its defensive identity on Thursday night, snapping its road losing streak by defeating Middle Tennessee, 60-52, inside the Murphy Center.
LA Tech (11-6, 1-1 CUSA) managed to hold Middle Tennessee (6-10, 0-1 CUSA) to just 38.9 percent shooting from the field while also forcing 18 turnovers. Add to that 11 steals and four blocks.
Four of those steals came courtesy of Isaiah Crawford who added 14 points on the offensive end. And three of those blocks came from Daniel Batcho who put up another double-double with a team-high 16 points and 13 rebounds.
Ten of those 16 points came during one stretch midway through the second half. After MTSU took a two-point advantage with 12:25 to play in the game, Batcho himself went on an 8-0 run to flip the lead in favor of the Bulldogs at 44-38.
He made it 10 straight points after a made layup with 5:51 to go, up 46-40. After the Blue Raiders’ Jordan Porter matched his layup to cut their deficit down to four, Tahlik Chavez had a big three-pointer from the top of the arc to push the advantage out to 49-42.
With less than one minute to go and up five, Chavez came up huge again by hitting a dagger three from the corner to make it 55-47 in favor of LA Tech. The squad then went 5-of-6 from the foul line down the stretch to help snap the ‘Dogs four-game road losing streak.
Chavez, who was the third Bulldog in double figures with 15 points, went 3-of-5 from deep with his first triple tying up the game at 24-24 (the first of six ties in the contest). An Isaiah Crawford free throw would give LA Tech a 25-24 edge going into halftime.
Porter had a game-high 24 points for Middle Tennessee, hitting three of the team’s five three-pointers (went 5-of-22 from beyond the arc). Jared Coleman-Jones added 17 points and 10 boards.
QUOTABLES
Head coach Talvin Hester
On the defense …
“I told the guys we cannot let teams score 70 points on us consistently. When we hold teams under 70, we give ourselves a chance to win. In the first half even though we did not play particularly well offensively, we did what we came to do defensively. It is hard to keep good players down.”
On Daniel Batcho’s performance …
“Good players come back. He had good week of practice. I do not think he had a good first half, but he holds himself accountable and told us it would not be that way in the second half.”
On Tahlik Chavez hitting big shots …
“He has no fear. I think everybody is seeing that. He is capable of running off a few in a row. He hit two late that were huge threes at the time that he hit them.”