PINEVILLE, La. – Trailing for a total of just one minute, 15 seconds, the LeTourneau University men's basketball team held off a scrappy Louisiana College team to come away with a 95-75 victory at the H.O. West Field House in Pineville, Louisiana on Thursday, February 8th.
LeTourneau picked up their seventh straight win to improve to 19-3 overall and 13-2 in the American Southwest Conference while the Wildcats fell to 5-15 overall and 3-12 in the ASC.
"I am extremely proud of the guys for their focus on the road again tonight" said head coach
Dan Miller in a post-game interview. "Besides a brief run by Louisiana College in the second half, they showed focus for two halves tonight." "We need to be a 40-minute team to accomplish our goals and tonight we demonstrated that."
Most of the damage for the YellowJackets would be done from beyond the arc as LETU outshot LC 11-5 from three in addition to holding a 19-10 advantage in points off turnovers. A tight rebounding battle saw LeTourneau hold a 39-37 advantage on the glass, and shot 47.2 percent (34-for-72) from the field. Louisiana College could not overcome a 13-of-34 (38.2 percent) shooting percentage in the first half, finishing 27-for-63 (42.9 percent) from the floor.
LeTourneau used a balanced effort to pick up the victory, with sophomore
Nate West leading the charge with 22 points and eight rebounds to go along with two assists in 38 minutes of action. Senior
Alec Colhoff and junior
Christian Seidl each pitched in 14 points while
Caleb Loggins did a little bit of everything on the night (19 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and one block). Louisiana College got a good chunk of their scoring from starter Devon Washington, who finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds.
After trading the opening three buckets of the game, LETU would see LC jump out to a 7-4 lead before reclaiming the lead on a
Justin Moore jumper with 15:31 left in the first half. LeTourneau couldn't build off the momentum gained right before the game's first media timeout, as the Wildcats tied the game back up at 13-13 just a few minutes later. A 14-0 run by the YellowJackets gave LeTourneau a 27-13 lead just past the halfway point of the opening 20 minutes of action, before the lead would be pushed out to 16 at 37-21 with 5:47 left before halftime. Five quick points for LC quickly got the lead back down to 11 heading into the final stretch of the first half before a 13-8 advantage in the last six minutes gave LETU a 50-34 lead at the break.
LeTourneau's halftime lead managed to be held throughout the beginning of the second half as every time Louisiana College would attempt to make a run the YellowJakets would respond with a bucket of their own. The LETU lead finally reached the 20-point mark with a Seidl triple with 9:41 left in the game to put the score at 70-49, but it would quickly be erased as nine straight points for the Wildcats put the score at 70-58. Small runs by both teams would be seen over the next few minutes as Louisiana College managed to get even closer with a Lashard Powell three to get to 79-69 with 4:25 left in the game. Powell then added a jumper following a missed three by Colhoff to get LC within single-digits, but a Loggins three-point play would swing momentum back to LETU. The Wildcats would make one final push, getting back to within 13 at 85-72 with 2:52 left in the game, but an 8-0 run by LeTourneau put the game out of reach with LETU earning their 12th double-digit victory of the year.
A chance to close out the 2017-18 home schedule 8-1 is on the table for LETU on Saturday, when the YellowJackets play host to Belhaven University at 4 p.m. Five seniors will be honored prior to the game, with the game being the last time that they will put on a LeTourneau uniform inside of Solheim Arena.
