Boxscore

EL PASO, Texas - Tasha Crain missed only her second start of the season but came off the Louisiana Tech bench to spark the sixth-ranked Lady Techsters to an 83-60 win over UTEP Thursday before 712 fans at the Don Haskins Center.

Crain, who suffered an injury early in Tech's 89-79 win over SMU last Saturday, played through a lot of pain and once again led the Lady Techsters to their 13th straight victory.

After UTEP (14-11, 9-7 WAC) cut a 23-point Tech lead down to 11 at 49-38 with 14:03 remaining in the game, Tech head coach Kurt Budke inserted Crain into the contest - the Kingsland, Texas, native played one minute in the first half but was pulled after it appeared she was in too much pain to continue - and the 5-foot-7 sophomore responded in a big way.

Crain pushed the tempo for Tech, recording assists on five of Tech's next eight baskets while also registering a steal and a layup in the backcourt as the Lady Techsters pushed the lead out to 69-45 with less than nine minutes remaining.

"We've said all year long that Tasha is the heart and soul of this basketball team and she proved it once again tonight," Budke said. "She played through a lot of pain tonight and was huge for us in the second half. It was a gutsy effort on her part."

Crain, who ended with six assists and only one turnover in only nine minutes of action, constantly fed Amisha Carter and Trina Frierson who consistently beat the UTEP post players up the court. For the second straight game, Carter came up huge in the second half as the Oakland, Calif., native scored 21 of her game-high 22 points in the final half.

"UTEP did a good job of taking Amisha and Trina out of the game in the first half," Budke said. "But they didn't hang their heads and both of them showed why they are the top two players in this conference in the second half."

Frierson scored 10 of her 14 points in the second half.

Tech built a 38-20 halftime advantage despite the struggles of their two leading scorers in the opening 20 minutes as Lakiste Barkus, Erica Smith-Taylor and Amber Obaze combined to score 27 points in the first half. Barkus and Smith-Taylor combined to nail five three-pointers as UTEP packed in a 1-2-2 zone, forcing the Lady Techsters to hit outside shots.

With Tech leading 10-6 at the 11:30 mark of the opening half, the Lady Techsters used a 22-3 run over the next six minutes to push the advantage out to 32-9. During that run, Tech hit four three-pointers.

Defensively, Tech was able to cause UTEP problems, holding the Miners to only 27 percent (8-30) shooting in the first half and 34 percent (23-68) for the game.

"UTEP wanted to slow the game down and make us work on the defensive end and I thought we did a good job of being patient and playing good defense," Budke said. "They consistently took the shot clock under 10 seconds before shooting and our kids did a good job of playing defense for 20-, 25- and even sometimes 30-seconds."

UTEP was led by Ingrid Goslin's 16 points while Vaida Zagurskyte added 14 points and Jonna Launiainen chipped in with 11 points.

Tech returns to action Saturday afternoon when they face Boise State at 3 p.m. CST.