GAME NOTES: The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs try to stretch their winning streak to four in a row on Saturday afternoon, as they tangle with the Roadrunners of Texas-San Antonio at the Convocation Center.

Winners of four of the last five outings overall, the Bulldogs are seeking to sweep a three-game, conference road trip with the meeting versus UTSA. The run began a week ago with an 83-70 triumph over Southern Miss and continued with a more conservative 58-45 final at UTEP two nights ago.

As for the Roadrunners, they too have won a couple of Conference USA bouts in succession, but they've come only after the team dropped the league opener at Rice on Jan. 2 by a score of 67-52. Regrouping after the setback to the Owls, UTSA then captured a 71-61 win over North Texas in Denton last weekend, and followed that up with a thrashing of Southern Miss on Thursday at home, 77-57.

Louisiana Tech has won six of the previous eight meetings between the programs, the latest victory for the Bulldogs coming in San Antonio last season by a score of 87-72. UTSA has won just one of four contests played at home in the series.

Knotted at 33-33 at the break against UTEP, the Bulldogs dialed up the defense in the second half and held the Miners to a mere five field goals and 12 points overall, en route to the 11th victory of the campaign. UTEP, which was forced into 13 turnovers, didn't help itself with a feeble 1-of-7 effort at the free-throw line either.

Raheem Appleby tallied a game-high 22 points as he converted all but three of his 12 field goal tries, followed by Erik McCree and Alex Hamilton with 13 and 11 points, respectively, for a program that picked up only four points from reserves.

Appleby, a 40.6 percent shooter behind the 3-point line, is responsible for a team-best 17.4 ppg, followed by Hamilton with his 15.1 ppg even though he has connected on 13-of-48 (.271) from long distance. Michale Kyser, who cleared nine rebounds against UTEP, leads the way in that department with 6.7 per contest and also has more than half the team's blocked shots with 47. Keeping the offense moving is Kenneth Smith (4.8 ppg) who has been sacrificing his own scoring in order to distribute 115 assists, his 7.7 apg placing him second in the entire nation.

UTSA scored the first points of the game against the Golden Eagles a few nights ago and never looked back, shooting 8-of-15 behind the 3-point line in the first half and 5-of-10 after the break, for an impressive 52.0 percent accuracy from long distance. Keon Lewis dropped in 16 points and handed out seven assists, followed by Ryan Bowie with 15 points, Kaj-Bjorn Sherman 14 and Jeromie Hill 10 points, leaving Gino Little as the only starter not in double figures with his six points.

The Roadrunners shot a season-high 56.3 percent from the floor overall, just the third time in 2014-15 the program has made at least half their attempts in a contest. On the season the squad checks in at just 42.3 percent surprisingly, with some high-scoring efforts coming against weaker opponents in order to produce 73.2 ppg.

Hill is tops on the scoring list with 15.1 ppg, followed closely by Lewis (14.9 ppg) and Bowie (14.5 ppg).

As long as Smith is able to find teammates in scoring situations and Kyser continues to handle the action in the paint for the Bulldogs, there's no reason to think the visitors will not come out on top in this meeting as well.