La.Tech looks to extend win streak against FAU

RUSTON – Louisiana Tech looks to extend its four-game winning streak and keep its sights set on a first-round bye in the league tournament when they meet Florida Atlantic on Thursday night at 6:30 inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court.

Tech (18-8, 10-3 C-USA) is currently in second place in the conference standings, two games back of first and two games in front of third, with five remaining league games to go. Like in previous years, the top four seeds get a bye into the quarterfinals.

The Bulldogs have put themselves in this position thanks to their second conference road sweep of the season, taking a one-point victory at UTEP and a six-point victory at UTSA last week.

After winning in El Paso for just the third time in program history, the team made the trek to San Antonio and got revenge on the Roadrunners with a 72-66 win.

Redshirt senior Erik McCree shined in both contests. He posted a game-high 19 points and eight boards versus the Miners and turned around two days later to register a game-high 25 points, hitting a career-high six 3-pointers, to go along with nine rebounds.

During this four-game winning streak, the forward has been on fire from long range. He is 17-of-25 from behind the arc for 68 percent.

The whole team is shooting 45 percent and has made at least 10 3-pointers in all four games, the first time this has happened since February of 2013.

Others shooting it really well from deep during this span are Jacobi Boykins (10-of-21), DaQuan Bracey (4-of-8) and Jy’lan Washington (5-of-8).

Florida Atlantic (8-15, 4-8 C-USA) fell to 11th in the league standings this past weekend after narrowly dropping two home games to North Texas and Rice. The Owls lost y six to the Mean Green in regulation and by six in overtime to the other Owls.

Prior to that, FAU had won three straight conference games versus FIU, Charlotte and Old Dominion with all three coming on the road. The Owls also had arguably the biggest non-conference win in the league with a road upset over Ohio State.

The Owls play a lot of different lineups with 10 players averaging at least 16 minutes of action. One player though is averaging double-digit points and that is Clemson transfer Adonis Filer. He is averaging 10.4 points per game. He came off the bench in their previous game against Rice to score a team-high 18 points.