Louisiana Tech defeats FAU in C-USA debut

RUSTON, La. (AP) — Michale Kyser scored a career-high 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Louisiana Tech to an 84-64 victory over Florida Atlantic Thursday night.

Both teams were making their Conference USA debuts, Louisiana Tech coming over from the Western Athletic Conference and FAU from the Sun Belt.

Alex Hamilton added 14 points, Cordarius Johnson 12 and Chris Anderson 10 for the Bulldogs (13-3), who won their fifth consecutive game.

The Owls (4-11) were led by Jackson Trapp with 16 points, Justin Raffington, 12, and D’Andre Johnson, 10.

The Bulldogs led 33-30 at halftime on Johnson’s 3-pointer. They came out in the second half and scored 10 unanswered points, including six by Anderson, for a 43-20 advantage at 17:09. The Owls weren’t able to get the deficit under double digits thereafter.

Louisiana Tech hit 18 of 28 free throws to 6 of 12 for FAU, which had 19 turnovers.