Louisiana Tech men's hoops coach Eric Konkol would like to play more players than he did Saturday Southern Miss, but liked what he saw. Cory Diaz/The News-Star
RUSTON – Having now reached the midway point of the Conference USA slate, Louisiana Tech will take its three-game winning streak on the road as they go up against Florida Atlantic on Thursday night at 6 p.m. CT inside FAU Arena.
The matchup can be seen online at WatchStadium.com with Ron Thulin and Mo Casara will be calling the action. Fans can also listen to the Voice of the Bulldogs Dave Nitz call the game on the La. Tech Sports Network on KXKZ 107.5 FM (Ruston) and KRMD 100.7 FM (Shreveport) as well as on the Louisiana Tech X mobile app.
After winning three straight games at home, Tech (13-9, 4-5 C-USA) has climbed into a four-way tie for seventh in the C-USA standings.
To climb further up this week, the Bulldogs will have to do something they have yet to do this season and that is win on the road. They have fallen short all six times this season.
It will be somewhat of a home game though since three Tech players (all projected starters) call the Sunshine State home – Amorie Archibald from Deltona, Jacobi Boykins from St. Petersburg and Derric Jean from nearby Miami.
This trio has been instrumental in getting the ‘Dogs back on the winning track. First was the dramatic 66-65 victory against North Texas when Archibald scored a career-high 21 points.
Boykins led the way in scoring in the other two convincing victories over Rice (69-54) and Southern Miss (89-66). The senior sharpshooter hit six 3-pointers in each of those games.
Meanwhile, Jean has continued to cause chaos on defense, often times guarding the opposing team’s best perimeter player.
Tech has only made this Florida swing one other time and it did not go well to say the least, especially against Florida Atlantic (10-11, 4-5 C-USA). The Bulldogs lead the series, 3-1, but that lone loss was a painful one.
The squad was up by as much as 24 points in the first half in Boca Raton, but the Owls stormed back to erase the deficit and hit a game-winning 3-pointer with 3 seconds left.
Something very similar happened in FAU’s last game. They picked up their 10th victory of the season when Justin Massey hit a 30-footer at the buzzer to defeat Rice, 63-62, in Houston.
Under fourth-year head coach Michael Curry, the Owls have already matched their win total from a season ago. A big reason for that is their big-man Ronald Delph who was recently named C-USA Player of the Week after his performances against Rice and North Texas, averaging 20.5 points and 7.5 boards per game.
The 7-footer is part of a strong inside-outside punch for FAU. Delph is currently leading the Owls in scoring (13.9) and rebounding (9.0). The outside punch is Gerdarius Troutman who leads the league in 3-point shooting percentage (43.1) which also ranked 38th in the country.
Florida Atlantic is solid on defense as well, ranking third in the league by allowing only 68.2 points per game. Only two teams in C-USA have been able to score over 70 points against them.