Boxscore

RUSTON - Louisiana Tech survived key injuries and a furious Western Kentucky second half rally to down the Lady Toppers 73-60 before 3,227 at the Thomas Assembly Center Thursday night.

Leading scorer and starting point guard Tasha Crain left the floor less than three minutes into the game with an injury and although she returned right before halftime, she was ineffective offensively, scoring only five points in the win.

Later in the first half, sophomore guard Shan Moore went down with an injury and also missed considerable minutes in the opening half. However, she returned to score a career-high 20 points while dishing out six assists.

"It was unbelievable," said head coach Kurt Budke. "I looked out there and Tasha was down ? then Shan was down. Fortunately, they are both tough kids. I can't tell you that I'm upset about the way we played because with everything that has gone on (with injuries), I'll take any kind of win we can get."

The Lady Techsters jumped out to an early 22-9 lead behind the hot shooting of Moore, who scored 10 of Tech's first 22 points. After Western closed the gap to 26-22 at the 3:30 mark of the first half, Crain returned and sparked the Techsters to a 13-0 run and a 39-22 advantage. Tech led 39-25 at the half.

Holding onto a 45-29 lead with 18:04 remaining in the game, Tech saw its lead start to evaporate as Western freshman post Crystal Kelly went to work down low. The former Miss Basketball in the state of Kentucky scored 18 of her game-high 29 points in the second half and was integral in the Lady Toppers cutting Tech's advantage.

Two free throws by Cacie Pope at the 5:46 mark of the game made the score 61-59 Techsters and the Western rally was almost complete.

However, four straight free throws by sophomore forward Ty Moore, who ended the evening with a career-high 10 points, and then two straight buckets by senior guard Lakiste Barkus sealed the win for the Techsters.

Barkus, who was only 1-for-12 from the field in Tech's loss to Mississippi State Tuesday, responded to Budke's challenge, hitting 7-of-11 field goals and scoring 17 points.

"Lakiste really responded from a poor outing at Mississippi State and we challenged her to look at things like shot selection," Budke said. "Looking across the board, her numbers were pretty good tonight."

Barkus, who also registered five first-half steals, agreed that she had to focus on some of the little things.

"I just had to figure out what I had to do to contribute," Barkus said. "I figured that was to play defense and let the game come to me. Things happen and when Tasha went down, I had to step up."

For the game Tech shot 52 percent (27-52) from the field while holding an offensive minded Western Kentucky team to only 35 percent (20-57), including only 28 percent (8-28) in the first half.

Tech returns to action Saturday at 2 p.m. when its hosts Illinois in a basketball doubleheader at the Thomas Assembly Center. The Bulldogs will host Texas-San Antonio following the Techster game.