Boxscore

DALLAS, Texas - Louisiana Tech's two-headed post monster unleashed its fury Saturday afternoon as senior forwards Amisha Carter and Trina Frierson tag-teamed Southern Methodist in the Lady Techsters 89-79 victory before 1,893 at Moody Coliseum.

Carter scored a career-high 33 points and grabbed 17 rebounds while Frierson recorded a career-high 29 points and added 11 rebounds to lead Tech (20-2, 13-1 WAC) to its 12th straight win. Junior guard Erica Smith-Taylor added 16 points and a career-high 15 rebounds as Tech upped its all-time mark against SMU 15-0.

In the first half it was Frierson doing the damage for Tech, scoring 20 of her 29 points, keeping the Lady Techsters within striking distance heading into the halftime locker room with SMU holding a 42-40 lead. The Vicksburg, Miss., native hit 10 of 16 field goals in the opening 20 minutes to help the Lady Techsters overcome seven first-half three-pointers and 50 percent shooting by SMU.

"I honestly wasn't sure if SMU was going to miss a shot for a while," said Tech head coach Kurt Budke. "It seemed like every time we gave them any space, they were making them. Fortunately, Trina was hitting those 17- and 18-footers and that kept us in it."

Trailing 15-9 at the at the 15:40 mark of the opening half, Tech used a 16-0 run over the next five minutes to grab a 25-15 advantage. However, SMU (12-11, 8-6) got hot and turned nine first half Tech turnovers into 17 points to grab the two-point halftime advantage.

The two teams continued to trade buckets over the first 10 minutes of the second half as SMU held a 65-63 lead with 9:31 remaining in the game. However, Tech retook the lead on a pair of free throws by Carter, who scored 24 of her 33 points in the second half, and never trailed again.

"Amisha came up big for us in the second half," Budke said. "SMU tried to guard our post players man for man and both Amisha and Trina came up big. I kept thinking SMU would make us beat them from the outside, but they didn't and Amisha hit some big shots for us down the stretch."

The game was decided in the final three minutes. With Tech leading 77-74 at the 2:59 mark of the game, senior guard Amber Obaze, who was making her homecoming after prepping at Dallas Bryan Adams High School, hit a 12-footer in the lane to start a 7-0 Techster run. Obaze, who struggled from the field making only 2 of 12 shots, led Tech with seven assists while also pulling down seven rebounds in 36 minutes of action.

The Techsters managed to overcome the loss of starting point guard Tasha Crain, who suffered an injury in the first five minutes of the game. Crain status for Tech's upcoming two-game road trip is questionable.

"I thought Lakiste (Barkus) did a good job of running the show for us," Budke said. "However, Tasha definitely spearheads our defensive effort, and we missed her. It was a gutsy effort by this team, and I am very proud of them."

Kaira White led SMU with 24 points while Kendall Shead added 16 and Shanta Ramdhanny chipped in with 16.

Tech returns to action Thursday at UTEP at 8 p.m.