Boxscore

RUSTON - Louisiana Tech's future was on display Thursday night at the Thomas Assembly Center as sophomore's Tamika Kursh, Ty Moore and Shan Moore led the Lady Techsters to a hard fought 66-52 win over San Jose State before 2,637 fans.

With guards Tasha Crain and Lakiste Barkus, who combined to score 55 points in Tech's last outing, struggling offensively, the sophomore trio posted career numbers in the Lady Techsters 21st straight Western Athletic Conference win.

Kursh scored a career-high 17 points and pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds while Ty Moore tied her career-high with 10 points while adding a career-high 14 boards. Shan Moore contributed with 14 points, three assists and three steals in the win.

"I think you saw our future on the court tonight," said Tech head coach Kurt Budke. "We were really struggling to shoot the basketball, and I thought that both Tamika and Ty came up huge for us on the offensive glass, especially in the second half."

Tech (9-4, 5-0 WAC) was ice cold from the field in the early going as San Jose State scored the first eight points of the game and built a 12-2 lead at the 13:09 mark of the first half. The Techsters then used a 7-0 run to close the gap to 12-9 before the Spartans (9-5, 2-2 WAC) pushed the advantage back out to 19-12 at the 6:08 mark on a jumper by guard Erica McGlaston.

Once again Tech answered with a 9-0 run capped by Aarica Ray-Boyd's three-pointer at the 1:47 mark of the half to give the Techsters their first lead of the game at 21-19. San Jose State entered the halftime locker room leading 24-22.

"I didn't think we did a very good job of attacking their zone in the first half," Budke said. "We settled for too many outside shots and we missed too many in the paint. You have to give San Jose State credit; they played us tough. They always do."

Tech hit only 7 of 35 field goals in the first half for 20 percent while being outrebounded 28-20.

However, the second half was a different story for the Techsters, especially on the glass.

With Kursh and Ty Moore crashing the offensive boards in the final 20 minutes, Tech outrebounded San Jose State 32-12 and consequently outscored the Spartans 44-28.

With the score tied at 29-29 at the 16:27 mark of the second half, Tech began to pull away using a 13-2 run over the next six minutes of the game. The sophomore trio combined to score 10 of the 13 points in the run.

Tech pushed the advantage out to 15 points at 58-43 with just over two minutes to play before the Spartans cut it down to six points at 58-52 with over 1:18 left. However, Tech hit 8 of 10 free throws down the stretch to pull out the win.

Defensively, Tech throttled San Jose State freshman forward Amber Jackson, who entered the game as the WAC's leading scorer averaging 18.5 points a game. However, with the Tech post players and guards constantly double teaming her, Jackson was held to a season low six points on 3 of 6 shooting and a season low four rebounds.

"She was nervous before the game," said Spartan head coach Janice Richard. "She knew the tradition of Tech's program and saw all the banners hanging from the rafters. We wanted to calm her down so she could showcase her ability. Tech sagged on her defensively, and she never got an open look."

Jessica Kellog led San Jose State with 13 points while McGlaston added 12 points and Lamisha Augustine 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Tech returns to action Saturday night at home against Hawaii at 6:30 p.m.