Boxscore RUSTON ? Mississippi State overcame 36 turnovers to down Louisiana Tech 63-50 Thursday night at the Thomas Assembly Center.
The Lady Bulldogs held the Lady Techsters to only 26 percent (16-62) shooting in the victory, while connecting on 42 percent (23-55) of their field goal attempts.
?We continue to struggle offensively,? said Tech head coach Chris Long. ?We are a team searching for an offensive identity. Mississippi State is a very good defensive team and they made things difficult on us, but at the same time we had opportunities. They are simply better than we are right now, and it?s up to us to get better.?
For the fourth straight game, Tech (4-5) was unable to find an offensive rhythm as the Lady Techsters were held to 50 points. Playing for only the second game without injured guard
Whitney Jones, who underwent surgery on Thursday and is most likely out for the year, Tech simply lacked the consistency from the field that was needed to knock off the Lady Bulldogs (8-2).
Mississippi State jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and never trailed in the game. Despite their offensive difficulties, Tech found a way to remain close trailing 24-20 on a
Tarkeisha Wysinger bucket with 4:20 to play before the Lady Bulldogs used a 10-4 run to end the half and enter the locker room with a 10-point lead.
Wysinger almost single handedly kept the game close, scoring 11 of her game-high 14 points in the opening 20 minutes of play.
?Tarkeisha brought a lot of energy tonight,? Long said. ?She reminds me a lot of (former Techster) Erica Taylor. She needs to improve her outside game, but she has better ball-handling skills and is stronger. We continue to work on her outside game; she is only going to get better.?
However, while Wysinger brought a spark ? the Many native added six steals and four rebounds ? her teammates struggled to help.
Tech opened the second half by missing 13 of its first 15 shots and fell behind 48-29 at the midway mark of the final 20 minutes of play.
?I thought defensively we played much better tonight,? Long said. ?We still have a long way to go and it?s not going to happen overnight. We will get better. We forced 36 turnovers and had 16 steals. We just weren?t able to capitalize on it.?
Jo Sneed added 11 points and seven rebounds while
Shanavia Dowdell added 11 points and nine rebounds in the loss.
Tysheka Grimes led Mississippi State with 14 points while Alexis Rack added 11 points and Robin Porter scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Tech forced Rack into nine turnovers on the night.
Tech returns to action Sunday at 2 p.m. when it hosts LSU.
