HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – A new era began on The Hill as the 6,000-seat Event Center was added to an already impressive roster of athletic facilities as Alabama A&M (0-5, 0-0 SWAC) christened the State-of-the-Art building with a narrow 80-75 loss to Louisiana Tech (3-2, 0-0 C-USA) in an NCAA Division I men's basketball game on Wednesday, November 23.
 
Senior guard Garrett Hicks (Madison, Ala.) lit it up from beyond the arc, going 6-of-10 for 22 points along with four rebounds and four assists to pace the Bulldogs while junior forward Dailin Smith (Colorado Springs, Colo.) finished with 18 points, going 11-of-14 from the foul line.
 
Graduate center Olisa Blaise Akonobi (Abuja, Nigeria) logged 29 minutes to come away with 12 points, four caroms, two assists and a pair of blocks and junior guard Messiah Thompson (Atlanta, Ga.) was a sparkplug, leading the way with six assist to go with five points.
 
A tightly contested affair, the clubs would battle through four ties and three lead changes before Louisiana Tech managed a 21-15 lead at the midway point of the first half. From there neither team would find their footing as they combined to go scoreless over the next 2:35 before Hicks and La Tech's Dravon Mangum traded triples to break the skein.
 
Trailing 26-18 with 5:29 left in the half Hicks and Smith would knock down a long ball apiece to cut it to two before Terran Williams hit from long range to make it 29-24. At that point the Bulldogs's Hicks and Smith would combine to go 4-of-4 at the foul line and senior guard Cameron Tucker (Birmingham, Ala.) drilled the go-ahead three for a 31-29 lead with 1:06 on the clock. Williams would see to it that it would not stay that way as he nailed back-to-back triples before a jumper by Tucker sent the teams to the break at 35-33.
 
The Bulldogs from the Bayou extended their lead to eight, 41-33, behind a 6-0 burst over the first 1:26 of the second half but A&M responded with a Hicks three and Smith jumper to spark a 6-0 run of their own and pull to within 41-39.
 
La Tech would maintain their lead as they saw it fluctuate between three and eight points in a bend-but-don't'-break approach over the next 6:55. At that point they would use a 5-0 burst to take the lead to double-digits, 60-50, for the first of five times in the ensuing minutes, the last at 73-63 with 3:06 to play.
 
The Bulldogs would stay within striking distance and found themselves down 78-69 with 46 seconds on the clock – and then found some late life. Hicks and Thompson would drill consecutive treys to suddenly slice it the lead to just 78-75 with 17 seconds showing. Louisiana Tech was able to run half that time off avoiding a foul, however, before Williams converted both freebies to effectively salt away the narrow 80-75 victory.
 
That would put the cap on a 20-point day for Williams in which he went an incredible 6-of-8 from the field with all but one of those shots coming from beyond the arc. He was joined by Cobe Williams with 16 points, six assists and four steals and Keaston Williams, who barely missed a double-double with 11 points and eight boards. Isaiah Crawford delivered an all-around effort with eight points, six caroms and five assists and Jordan Crawford added seven points and five assists to round out the top performers.
 
The Bulldogs will be right back in action at the Events Center as they host a Black Friday special on November 25 when they take on UT-Southern. Game time is set for 6 p.m. at the newest arena in the country and new home of Alabama A&M basketball.
 
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