Dogs dump North Texas to advance to conference finals
Photo by Roger Steinman
Louisiana Tech’s Cobe Williams (24) and Kenneth Lofton Jr. celebrate beating top seed North Texas Friday in Frisco, Texas. The Dogs play Saturday night for an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
FRISCO, Texas – Louisiana Tech advanced to the C-USA Tournament Finals on Friday by outlasting North Texas in a 42-36 defensive slugfest inside the Ford Center at The Star.
Points were at a premium, and that was very much the case for Tech (24-9) to start the game as they missed 11 of their first 12 shot attempts. As a result, they found themselves down 10-2 with 8:55 to go in the first half.
However, the Dogs found their offensive rhythm against one of the elite defenses in the country in North Texas (24-6). They ended up making seven of their final 12 shots, going on a 15-0 run in the process to take a 21-13 lead into halftime.
Tech tacked on a threepointer by Keaston Willis (one of his four on the day) and a made jumper by Kenneth Lofton, Jr. to build its largest lead of the game at 26-13 with 18:09 to go.
The Bulldogs were only able to muster four made field goals the remainder of the game. And despite the Mean Green putting together two separate runs of 6-0 and 8-0, the defense by the Dogs was stellar.
UNT got its deficit down to one possession on just one occasion, trailing 35-32 with 2:15 left, but more defensive stops and clutch free throws by Lofton, Amorie Archibald and Cobe Williams help put the Bulldogs into the tournament title game for the first time since 2014.
Willis and Williams each tallied a team-high 12 points while Lofton recorded nine points and 12 rebounds.
The team shot 28.6% from the field and 27.8% from beyond the arc. On the flipside, North Texas was limited to 24.1% shooting from the field and 16.7% from three point range.
“We knew this was going to be a gritty game. Not just because of it being in March and it being in the conference tournament, we knew it was going to be because of the type of games we have had with North Texas in the past,” Tech head coach Eric Konkol said. “We knew we were going to have to defend because we knew they were going to. It is something we have tried to get better at all year long. Our whole team did it today.”
Tech advanced to its first tournament final since they did in its first season in Conference USA back in 2014.
The Bulldogs will take on UAB Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. on Court A of the Ford Center at The Star and will be nationally televised on CBS Sports Network. UAB has defeated the Bulldogs twice this season already. The winner of Saturday’s game receives an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
