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Sports

No. 25 Louisiana Tech downs San Jose State for 18th-straight win

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Ruston, LA – Raheem Appleby scored 16 points and Alex Hamilton added 13 points and five rebounds to lead 25th-ranked Louisiana Tech to an 88-61 win over San Jose State on Saturday.

Jaron Johnson added 13 points and Brandon Gibson finished with 12 for the Bulldogs (26-3, 16-0 WAC), who extended the nation's longest active winning streak to 18 games.

Akron, which had won 19-straight games entering play on Saturday, fell at Buffalo, 81-67.

With the win, the Bulldogs secured at least a share of their first regular- season conference title in 14 years. Louisiana Tech currently holds a two- game edge over Denver in the WAC standings and can lock up an outright title with a win over New Mexico State on March 7. The Bulldogs will close their regular season at Denver on March 9.

"It was a good win for us. We finished one of our preseason goals that we set out to accomplish in September and that was to finish undefeated at home. It feels really good to finish that task," Louisiana Tech head coach Michael White said. "Obviously, winning a regular season championship -- even a share of it -- is something that we set out to do for months. It is exciting but there is still a lot left to play for next week."

Xavier Jones scored 14 points, while Chris Cunningham and D.J. Brown added 10 points apiece for the Spartans (9-18, 3-13), losers in 12 straight.

"These guys have won a lot of games in a row and deservedly so. They really go after the ball hard. We had too many turnovers in the first half and allowed them to build their lead," San Jose State head coach George Nessman said.

Louisiana Tech raced out to an 18-8 lead and was up 27-12 near the midway point of the first half.

The Bulldogs opened up a 14-8 swing to push their spread to 41-20, and led 45-26 at the break.

Louis Garrett's trey six minutes into the second half pulled San Jose State within 54-37, but Louisiana Tech quickly pushed its spread over 20 at 67-46.

The Spartans couldn't get closer than 17 the rest of the way.

Game Notes

The Bulldogs last conference crown came in the 1998-99 season when they won the Sun Belt ... Louisiana Tech dominated the Spartans inside, outscoring them 36-20 in the paint and outrebounding them 44-34 ... The Bulldogs' bench outscored San Jose State's reserves 43-9 ... The Spartans allowed 24 points off 21 turnovers.