March 1, 2008

Box Score

RUSTON - There's something to say for winning ugly.

That's exactly what Louisiana Tech did Saturday night when the Lady Techsters overcame 24 turnovers in a 70-64 victory over Nevada before 1,213 fans at the Thomas Assembly Center.

Despite the turnovers and 23 offensive rebounds by Nevada, Tech defeated the Wolf Pack.

"I told the kids in the locker room that this box score wasn't going to be very pretty," said Tech head coach Chris Long. "However, I was proud that we fought through a lot of adversity and found a way to win. I thought we were the tougher basketball team tonight.

"Nevada is a very good team that causes you so many problems with their pressure. It affected us all night long. At times we didn't do a very good job of handling it, but we still made plays and won."

The victory was the third in a row for Tech (14-13, 8-6 WAC) which ends the regular season with a two-game road trip at Hawaii Thursday and at San Jose State Saturday.

Tech looked to be on control of the game early, building a 30-19 lead with 4:44 to play in the opening period behind the inside play of Shanavia Dowdell and Jo Sneed, who combined to hit 7-of-7 field goals in the first half.

However, with Tech starting point guard Tiawana Pringle on the bench in foul trouble, Nevada's relentless full-court man-to-man press took its toll on the Lady Techsters as the Wolf Pack (18-10, 9-6) forced four turnovers en route to a 9-2 run that closed the half.

Tech entered the locker room leading only 32-24.

"I said before the game we couldn't afford for Pringle to get in foul trouble," Long said. "She handles their pressure better than any of our guards. Nevada did a good job of taking our point guard away at times and forcing some of our other guards to bring it up and we didn't always make good decisions.

"At times we fell into the trap of playing their style of basketball instead of running our offense and making them play defense for 30 seconds."

The second half of basketball was close throughout as Tech never surrendered its lead although the Wolf Pack kept it within six points until the Lady Techsters used a 7-0 run to push the advantage to 59-49 on a jumper by Tarkeisha Wysinger at the 2:38 mark.

Nevada was forced to foul and Tech hit 10-of-15 free throws in the final 2:20 to secure the win.

Sneed led Tech with 13 point and 14 rebounds while Nastassja Levingston added 12 points, Dowdell scored 11 points and Sidney Stewart added a career-high 10 points.

Dellena Criner led Nevada with 29 points while Sabrina Keys scored 13 points.