RUSTON - Trina Frierson scored a career-high 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Cheryl Ford added 23 points and 13 rebounds to lead 10th-ranked Louisiana Tech to a 79-67 win over Nevada Saturday night at the Thomas Assembly Center.

Tech (21-2, 13-0) overcame the hot-shooting of the Wolfpack (9-14, 2-11) and senior guard Ashley Bastian who hit 7 of 11 three-pointers and sparked Nevada to an early 13-point lead.

"I just felt like (Bastian) was awesome," Frierson said. "She was red hot. She hit some tough shots where we were in her face. She is just a great player. I won't blame it on distractions because we should be able to handle those."

Nevada hit six of its first eight three-pointers, including five of five by Bastian to quiet the Thomas Assembly Center crowd on Parent's Night. After Bastian hit her fifth three-pointer in the first half to give Nevada a 27-14 lead with 9:59 remaining, Tech head coach Kurt Budke called a timeout.

"I'm not going to lie, I was worried," Ford said. "After Coach Budke called a timeout and yelled at us, we knew what we were going to have to do to get back into the game. But I was worried for a while."

Budke said although he wasn't overly concerned at the point, he knew he had to get his team's attention before the game was out of hand.

"The whole timeout, it was just a matter of us getting our intensity level up," Budke said. "We were standing around and not helping off on screens. We were not in panic mode yet, but I got on them to get their intensity up."

Budke's little speech worked as the Lady Techsters outscored Nevada 15-0 over the next seven minutes to regain the lead before entering halftime tied 34-34. Tech was fortunate to be tied after the Wolfpack hit 58.3 percent (14-24) of their first half field goals.

And although Nevada didn't cool down too much in the second half, Frierson and Ford were simply too much inside as the two combined to score 26 of Tech's 45 second half points. Frierson, who had struggled over the past few games, said she was happy with her performance.

"I needed a game like this," Frierson said. "I felt like I had been struggling and Coach Budke had a talk with me on the plane ride home from San Jose. He told me he wanted me to be the explosive Trina Frierson that he knew I could be."

With the win and Tulsa's 86-60 loss to UTEP and Rice's 58-51 loss to Boise State, Tech clinched at least of share of the 2003 Western Athletic Conference regular season title.

For the game, Nevada hit 51.9 percent of its shots, marking the first time in 83 games that a conference opponent had hit better than 50 percent in a game against Louisiana Tech. The Wolfpack converted 10 of 22 three-pointers in the game, but were hurt by 22 turnovers and Tech's offensive rebounding.

"We had a lot of control in the first half, but the difference was rebounding," said Nevada head coach Ada Gee. "Tech's post play was huge tonight."

The Lady Techsters outrebounded Nevada 41-30, including 18 offensive rebounds. Bastian led Nevada with 23 points, while senior guard Laura Ingham added 14 points and eight assists.