Dec. 11, 2006

Final Stats

The Southern Jaguars continued their losing streak Saturday night, dropping a 74-66 decision to Louisiana Tech at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, LA.

The first half saw poor shooting by both the Jaguars (0-9) and the Bulldogs (2-6). When combined with an officiating crew that allowed extensive contact, the result wasn't a textbook display of college basketball.

Southern grabbed an early 9-4 lead behind five points from Deforrest Riley-Smith, but the Bulldogs responded with an 8-0 run to take a three-point lead at 12-9.

Tech stretched it to 10 points at 29-19 on a 3-point shot by Kyle Gibson. But Southern was able to outscore Tech 8-2 over the final 2:30 to cut the deficit to 31-27 at the half.

The sloppy play continued in the second half with both teams finding it easier to complete passes to the opposing players rather than their own.

The difference was Tech improved its second-half shooting, while Southern continued to have difficulty finding the basket. The Jaguars could only hit 1 of their 11 shots in the second half for a paltry 9.1 percent.

Louisiana Tech was able to win the rebounding battle, 42-29.

Riley-Smith, who came into the game averaging 14.3 points and 5.1 rebounds to lead the Jaguars, did nothing to hurt his averages.

The senior forward totaled a game-high 20 points and added nine rebounds, while Joe Holliday and Steffon Wiley added 12 and 11 points, respectively.

McKenzie had a game-high 19 rebounds to go with 14 points for his first double-double. Also scoring in double digits for Tech was Kyle Gibson with 16, Marcus Elliot with 12 and Trey McDowell with 11.

Southern will return home to face the Lions of Southeastern (La.) on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm in the F.G. Clark Activity Center.