Boxscore

RUSTON - Tasha Crain's 16 points led four players in double figures as Louisiana Tech downed SMU 77-63 before 3,534 fans at the Thomas Assembly Center Saturday afternoon.

Like clockwork, the Lady Techsters (16-6, 12-2 WAC) fell behind early, trailing 15-5 at the 15:43 mark of the opening half. However, an 11-0 run gave Tech its first lead at 16-15 at the midway mark of the first stanza.

"It's that way every home game," said guard Tasha Crain. "I don't know why. You can't afford to fall behind on the road, but maybe at home we're too relaxed."

Tech head coach Kurt Budke said he is perplexed as to why his team continues to fall behind, especially at home games.

"I guess I'm going to have to yell at them right before we come out of the tunnel," Budke said. "Because after the first timeout, I thought we did a tremendous job guarding them and playing with more intensity. They are a hard team to guard because they spread you out and have great shooters."

After SMU hit five of its first 6 shots to build the lead, the Tech defense did a much better job of locking down on the SMU players and making it much tougher to get easy shots.

For the game, Tech held SMU to 37 percent (22-59) from the field while forcing 21 Mustang turnovers.

"I have to give so much credit to (assistant coach) Chris Long," Budke said. "He is one of the best in this country at breaking teams down and giving our kids a great idea of what to expect and how to slow it down. I can't tell you what he means to this program."

Tech built a 38-33 halftime lead after shooting 48 percent (16-33) from the field in the first half despite the fact that Crain scored only two points in the opening stanza after picking up two personal fouls.

Junior guard Aarica Ray-Boyd ignited the Tech first half run, scoring seven of her 10 points, including hitting a pair of critical three-pointers that helped the Techsters recover from the early deficit.

"A-Ray is just become the Microwave," said Budke, referring to former Detroit Pistons shooter Vinny Johnson. "She comes off the bench for us and is instant offense. This was a team win, from her threes to Ty Moore's rebounding to Erica Taylor's energy."

Tech started the second half strong, quickly pushing its lead to 50-36 at the 16:14 mark, forcing SMU to call a timeout. The Mustangs were able to close the advantage to nine points at 56-47 with 12:32 to play but would get no closer.

In addition to Crain's 16 and Ray-Boyd's 10, Shan Moore added 13 points and Lakiste Barkus scored 11 as Tech outrebounded one of the WAC's best rebounding teams 38-34.

Janielle Dodds led SMU with 16 points while Sarah Davis scored 13 and Kendall Shead added 10.

Tech returns to action Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. when it hosts UTEP at the Thomas Assembly Center.