March 14, 2008

Box Score

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- The Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (16-15) could not advance past No. 1-seeded and red-hot Fresno State (21-10) Friday afternoon and were downed by a final score of 85-58 in the semi-finals of the 2008 WAC Tournament in the Pan American Center.

Fresno State has now won 19 of 21 games and set a WAC Tournament record with 13 three-pointers and most three-pointers attempted (33).

"I thought they played really tough today and they were hitting lots of tough shots," Tech head coach Chris Long said. "Their defensive play today was really good, especially because they play good help-side defense."

After the Techsters jumped out to a 4-0 lead thanks to sophomore Shanavia Dowdell and senior JoKeirra Sneed, Fresno State took a 22-6 run over the next seven minutes to build a 22-10 lead with 12:03 left in the first half. Tech answered with a 22-10 run of their own to tie the game 32-32 at the 4:30 mark. Fresno would however outscore the Techsters for the remainder of the first half and took a 44-36 lead into the halftime locker room.

"They spread you out and they pentrate really well," Long said. "Once they get to the inside they'll kick it out and hit the three. That's what they did today."

The Techsters could not find much offense in the second half and only scored 22 points for the remainder of the game while Fresno scored 39.

Dowdell led Tech in scoring with 15 points on 7-of-17 shooting while gathering eight rebounds. Sneed and senior Nastassja Levingston added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Jaleesa Ross led Fresno with 21.