Boxscore

DALLAS, Texas ? Tasha Crain scored 19 points and Lakiste Barkus added 18 points to lead Louisiana Tech to a 69-62 win before 2,063 fans at Moody Coliseum Saturday afternoon.

Crain and Barkus? heroics didn?t overshadow the return of senior guard Erica Taylor, who scored five points, grabbed two rebounds, registered two steals and recorded one assist in 11 minutes.

With the win Tech (11-4, 7-0 WAC) broke the Western Athletic Conference regular season winning streak at 23 games while SMU (13-4, 4-3 WAC) fell for only the second time in 12 home games this season.

After trailing the majority of the first half, Tech scored the final five points of the opening stanza to enter the halftime locker room tied 27-27. The Techsters then began the second half on a 15-8 run and pushed the advantage out to 62-50 at the 1:40 mark of the game.

However, a 10-1 run by SMU cut the Tech advantage to 63-60 before the Techsters hit 6 of 6 free throws down the stretch to seal the victory and improve to 16-0 all-time against SMU.

?I?m very proud of this basketball team,? said Tech head coach Kurt Budke. ?This has always been a tough place to play. Rice and Tulsa both lost here already this year so this is a big win for us in the league race.?

The return of Taylor to the floor was the highlight of the game. Taylor, who has missed the entire season after giving birth to daughter Nia Jay Taylor Dec. 14, entered the game at the 14:42 mark of the first half and sparked the Techsters.

?Erica was able to do exactly what we thought she could,? Budke said. ?She felt like she might not have contributed like she would have liked to but it?s going to take some time for her to get back to full strength. She was definitely a spark for us today. She hit a big three pointer for us in the second half and got her hands on a number of passes.?

Sophomore forward Ty Moore helped the Techsters win the rebounding war against SMU 42-40 as the Shreveport, La., native pulled down 13 rebounds while adding seven points.

Guard Katy Cobb scored a career-high 23 points to lead SMU.