Boxscore

RUSTON ? Kurt Budke is downright tired of having to give the same old halftime speech.

However, he might want to think about using it as his pre-game speech because whatever it is, works.

For the fourth straight home conference game, Louisiana Tech found itself trailing at the half and for the fourth straight time the Lady Techsters overcame their first half struggles, this time defeating Fresno State 86-76 before 3,183 fans at the Thomas Assembly Center.

Tech overcame an 11-point first half deficit and a 37-30 halftime deficit by shooting 58 percent from the field in the second half and outscoring the Bulldogs 56-39 in the final 20 minutes.

However, it wasn?t easy due to the efforts of Fresno State forwards Aritta Lane and Amy Parrish, who came to play. Lane scored a career-high 31 points while Parrish added 22 points and 13 rebounds as the duo combined to hit 21 of 44 field goals in the game.

?I thought they kicked our tail in the paint,? Budke said. ?After the game we addressed the toughness of our post players tonight. It was too easy for them to score in there. I told all my post players they better call every guard on this team and thank them tonight because they saved our tail tonight.?

Tasha Crain scored a team-high 25 points, while Lakiste Barkus added 20 points and Shan Moore finished with 14 points. The trio combined to score 44 of their points in the second half when the Techsters needed it the most against the Fresno State zone.

?I thought we did some good things in second half offensively,? Budke said. ?I thought we did a better job of attacking and pushing the break and finding the spots. It always starts and ends with Tasha Crain.

?However, I thought Lakiste also had a good night. She was chasing (Mirenda) Swearingen all night and still played well offensively. Shan had 10 straight points at a critical stretch in the second half.?

After opening the game with a three-pointer by Barkus, Tech found itself on the short end of a 24-13 game at the midway point of the opening half. Fresno State shot 50 percent in the opening stanza to take the seven-point halftime lead.

Vintage Lady Techster basketball started in the second half as Tech opened it on a 11-2 run to take a 41-39 lead, its first since leading 5-4 early in the game. Tech trailed again 47-46 when Shan Moore hit the first of back to back three-pointers in a two minute stretch that saw the sophomore score 10 straight points.

The Techsters upped the advantage to double digits with four minutes to play and hit enough free throws down the stretch to hang on to the victory.

Crain added nine assists, five steals and four rebounds in 40 minutes of action for Tech while Margaret DeCiman chipped in with 12 points. Ty Moore led Tech on the boards with 11 rebounds.

Tech returns to action Saturday at 6:30 p.m. against Nevada, which fell 64-55 to SMU Thursday in Dallas.