ARLINGTON, Texas – Daniel Batcho scored a career-high 28 points while Amaree Abram poured in 23 as Louisiana Tech downed UT Arlington, 92-77, on Saturday night inside College Park Center.
Batcho was unstoppable in the first half, scoring 20 of his points. Meanwhile, the second half belonged to Abram who tallied 20 of his points. Dishing out the rock to both was Sean Newman Jr. who had a career-high 11 assists on zero turnovers, plus 10 points for a double-double.
Crashing the glass was William Jeffress who had a double-double with 10 points and a career-high 12 boards. And locking things down on defense was Kaden Cooper who had a career-high five steals.
With all these individual performances by LA Tech (2-0), it was UTA (1-1) that came out with a lot of intensity, burying a pair of threes to take an early 6-point lead.
The Bulldogs started to settle in though, going punch for punch with the Mavericks. After eight ties and seven lead changes, LA Tech held a slim 26-25 lead with 9:36 to play in the first half.
That was when they started to pull away, and it was the Newman Jr.—Batcho connection that started it. The duo connected on three straight buckets and then the 'Dogs went on a 11-2 run, capped off by Abram's first basket (three-pointer) to head into halftime with a 51-37 advantage.
Abram carried that offensive mojo over, making seven of his eight field goal attempts in the second stanza including a driving layup to give the road team a 68-45 lead with 14:17 to play. The Port Arthur, Texas native refused to let the Mavericks back into the game, scoring 13 of LA Tech's last 17 points.
The Bulldogs shot 50.8 percent from the field (31-61) and 40.0 percent from downtown (10-25). They also knocked down 20 of their 26 free throw attempts.
UTA managed to shoot 41.8 percent from the field, led by Jaden Wells who had a team-high 17 points.
QUOTABLES
Head coach Talvin Hester Overall thoughts on the game …"I was proud of how our guys fought. You can't get ready for a road game until you have actually feel it for the first two or three minutes. UT Arlington came out very intense. We had to match their intensity. We talk about attitude and effort. I felt like our attitude was right but our effort was not quite where it needed to be. We got that together, we were a pretty good basketball team tonight."
On the difference between game one to game two …"I think we got one under our belt against LSUA. We had to get a game, really feel it with fans in the stands. This was a step up in a major way. Coach KT Turner does an amazing job. UTA plays so hard. I hope that we can start setting the tempo in some of these games. We did not defend like we really wanted to defend, but we played a good basketball team. We can grow there."
On Amaree Abram …"He is capable. That scoring ability is going to make us a good ball club. If we can defend, we can have different guys get it going on any night like Amaree. Hopefully we can keep our heads together, even keeled, we can have a lot of success."
NOTABLES
- LA Tech improves to 2-0 this season, winning the first two games of the season for the first time since 2020-21.
- The Bulldogs improved to 27-8 all-time versus the Mavericks. LA Tech has won five straight and 13 of the last 14 in the series.
- LA Tech has won four straight road games dating back to last season (seven of the last eight).
- The Bulldogs scored 92 points, the most in a road game since Feb. 1, 2024 at FIU. LA Tech has now scored 90+ points in three of their last six road games.
- Daniel Batcho scored a career-high 28 points, marking his seventh career 20+ scoring performance.
- Daniel Batcho registered two blocks, giving him 71 for his Bulldog career which is the ninth most in program history.
- Sean Newman Jr.recorded his first career double-double as a Bulldog with 10 points and a career-high 11 assists (had zero turnovers. He now has three career games at LA Tech with 10+ assists.
- Amaree Abram poured in 23 points, hitting a career-tying five three-pointers.
- William Jeffress notched his first double-double as a Bulldog with 10 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
- Kaden Cooper had a career-high five steals, becoming the first Bulldog with 5+ steals in a game since Isaiah Crawford did it on Feb. 10, 2024.
UP NEXT
LA Tech will head to Long Island, New York on Wednesday, Nov. 13 to participate in the Icons of the Game Event. The Bulldogs will battle the UMass Minutemen at 5 p.m. CT at Nassau Coliseum.
