Bulldogs collect first career win against Pilots, 91-78
January 22, 2007
Shreveport, LA---With the absence of starting point guard Freddy Hughes, the LSUS Pilots (13-4, 4-3) knew they were in tough against the Tougaloo College Bulldogs (7-8, 5-2) Monday night at The Dock. Things looked good early as the Pilots took a 45-43 lead into the locker-room at halftime, but the Bulldogs offense, led by newcomer Darius Simmons proved to be too much as TC went on to defeat the Pilots 91-78 in Gulf Coast Athletic Conference action.
The Bulldogs hit 6-of-7 field goals to start the first half including 2-of-2 from behind the three point line and led 14-4 at the 17:22 mark.
The Pilots managed to regroup after a much needed timeout and cut the Bulldogs lead to four after back-to-back and-one field goals by Blake Whittle making the score 24-20.
Simmons connected on his third three pointer of the half from 30 feet out and stretched the TC lead to 32-24 at the 9:22 mark. Simmons and Kevin McCoy, who combined for 17 of the Bulldogs 43 first half points however were sidelined the majority of the half due to foul trouble.
The Pilots offense took advantage of the Bulldogs foul situation and put together a 17-5 run which was capped off by a Jamon Morris field goal with 3:58 remaining, giving the Pilots their largest lead of the half, 41-37.
LSUS was able to match the TC offense throughout the first half and led 45-43 at the break thanks to an 18-of-33 (55%) shooting performance.
The second half however began with Simmons connecting on his first thee point attempt from the corner at the 19:51 mark giving the Bulldogs a one point lead.
The two teams traded baskets and found the score tied on seven different occasions through the midpoint of the second.
Once again it was Simmons who drained a three pointer at the 11:22 mark to give the Bulldogs a 65-62 lead, their first since the 19:51 mark. It proved to be the dagger however as the Pilots offense went stone cold scoring just four points over the next eight minutes and found themselves on the wrong end of a 16-4 run.
TC outscored LSUS 29-16 through the final 12:00 and went on to a 91-78 victory marking their first ever against LSUS in eight career games.
Simmons finished with a game high 24 points on 7-of-12 shooting which included 6-of-9 from beyond the arc and collected eight rebounds. Jermaine Hodges finished with 23 points while teammates Keithdrick Harris and McCoy added 16 and 14 respectively.
The Bulldogs shot a combined 52% (30-of-58) from the field and finished 22-of-25 from the free throw line. They also out rebounded the Pilots 36-34 while committing just eight turnovers in the contest.
With the victory the Bulldogs earned a share of first place in the GCAC with Southern University of New Orleans who both sport 5-2 conference records.
Monday night’s loss marks the first time since the 2004 season that the Pilots have lost back-to-back contests.
The Pilots offense sputtered in the second half but still finished with solid numbers. They shot a combined 45% from the floor and were 17-of-26 from the line. Whittle finished with a team high 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting while teammate Greg Tyer collected the games only double-double after collecting 11 points and 11 rebounds. Travis Cash added 18 points while Morris finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, ending his consecutive games with a double-double streak at four.
LSUS will now prepare for a tough two game road trip to New Orleans where they will square off against Loyola University Thursday night, and then they will take on the first place SUNO Knights Saturday afternoon.
