Boxscore

EL PASO, Texas ? Tasha Crain scored 27 points to lead four players in double figures as Louisiana Tech (12-5, 8-1 WAC) downed UTEP 82-69 Saturday night before 721 fans at the Don Haskins Center.
The win came two nights after Tech fell to Boise State, ending the Techsters 23-game Western Athletic Conference winning streak.
?Before the game, I wrote one thing on the board in the dressing room? said Tech head coach Kurt Budke. ?Play hard and have fun. That?s it. I thought we did a good job of doing both tonight. This was a focused basketball team.?
Crain hit 10 of 17 field goals and six of six free throws while adding five assists, three steals and two rebounds in 38 minutes of action. Shan Moore added 17 points and five rebounds while Margaret DeCiman scored a career-high 14 points, six rebounds and five blocks.
Lakiste Barkus was the fourth Techster in double figures adding 13 points and four assists.
Tech led 10-9 at the 12:37 mark of the first half before 17-4 run over the next seven minutes to up the advantage to 27-13. The Lady Techsters ended the first half on a 7-0 run to take a 40-24 lead into the lockeroom.
Although the Techsters hit only 10 field goals the entire first half, they were able to hit 18 of 19 free throws. For the game, Tech was 28 of 31 from the charity stripe.
?That?s a stat where you can tell if a team is focused and ready to play,? Budke said. ?If you are a good free throw shooting team which we are, you know that you aren?t focused if you shoot 50 percent in a game like we did Thursday night. Tonight, these kids had nothing but business on their minds.?
Tech opened the second half of play by pushing its lead out to 48-28 on a jumper by Crain at the 17:18 mark of the stanza. UTEP (8-11, 3-6) then went on a 10-2 run to close the lead to 50-38 at the 13:55 mark before Tech eventually pushed the advantage out to as many as 21.
UTEP hit four three-pointers in the final four minutes of play to make the final score closer.
Freshman forward Izabela Piekarska led UTEP with 18 points while Niki Avery added 12 and Charnette Phelps scored 10.
Tech ends the first half of its WAC schedule with a two-game lead over Tulsa, SMU and San Jose State who all registered 6-3 marks.
Tech returns to action Thursday night when the Techsters host Fresno State at 6:30 p.m.