Boxscore

RUSTON ? Shan Moore scored a season-high 18 points to lead Louisiana Tech to a 75-61 win over Boise State Thursday night at the Thomas Assembly Center in the Western Athletic Conference season opener for both teams.

Moore, who entered the game hitting only 30 percent of her shots for the year, connected on 8-of-11 field goals and both free throws while adding five rebounds, three assists and one steal in 27 minutes of play.

?I was proud of Shan tonight,? said Tech head coach Chris Long. ?She looked like her old self. She was so big for us in this win and hopefully she will continue to feed off of her performance tonight. It?s just a confidence issue with her right now.?

Ty Moore added 16 points and 10 rebounds while Tasha Williams scored 14 points and Eboni Mangum 12 points as Louisiana Tech (9-3, 1-0 WAC) fought off the upset bid by the Broncos (8-5, 0-1 WAC).

Boise State came out of the gates red hot, hitting their first four shots of the contest to grab an early 9-4 lead. The Broncos lead was 21-17 midway through the first half before Tech used an 11-4 run to regain a 28-25 advantage on a pair of Shan Moore free throws with 4:02 to play.

However, the Broncos fought back to take a 34-32 lead before Mangum hit a layup with :02 remaining in the first half to tie the score entering the half.

Boise State hit 45 percent of their shots in the opening half, including 4-of-8 from the three-point line. Nadia Begay led the Broncos offensive attack in the first half, scoring 13 of her 19 points while hitting 5-of-6 field goals.

?I give Boise State a lot of credit,? Long said. ?They are very tough to defend on the offensive end. Not only can their guards shoot the three-pointer extremely well but they are athletic enough to put it on the floor and go by you.?

Tech turned up the defensive pressure in the second half, forcing 19 second half Broncos turnovers and limiting Boise State to only 11 points in the first 16 minutes of play.

Tech led 62-45 with 3:23 left before Boise State ended the game hitting 7 of their final 9 shots of the game while scoring 16 points.

?I thought we won the game in the second half with our defense,? Long said. ?We did a better job of getting out in the passing lanes and creating turnovers. They hurt us late because we were so concerned about guarding the three point shot; we felt it was the only way they could get back in it and they starting driving by us.?

Jackie Lee led Boise State with 22 points.

Tech returns to action Saturday night when it hosts Idaho at 7 p.m.