Jan. 15, 2009
Watch Game
RUSTON -- Louisiana Tech hosts defending Western Athletic Conference champion Fresno State Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Thomas Assembly Center in an important early season league contest.
Both teams have aspirations of winning the league regular season title but both teams have already suffered a loss in the first week of conference play, placing even more importance on Friday night's showdown.
Tech (8-8, 1-1 WAC) is coming off a 90-82 overtime win over Utah State last Saturday, while Fresno State (11-5, 2-1) fell 55-52 at home to upstart Idaho in its last outing.
And although Tech leads the series 13-5, Fresno State dominated the Lady Techsters last year, winning all three games by an average margin of 23.0 points per game, including a 85-58 victory in the semifinals of the 2008 WAC Tournament in Las Cruces.
"Fresno State is a very talented basketball team," said Tech head coach Chris Long. "They are a team that is very difficult to defend. They spread the floor very well, and (players) one through five can drive and they can all shoot the three(-pointer). They put a lot of pressure on your defense. We will have to do a good job of forcing contested shots."
The game will pit the top two scoring teams in the league as Fresno State ranks No. 1 averaging 71.4 points per game while Louisiana Tech is close behind averaging 67.4 points a contest.
The Bulldogs have lived and died by the three-point shot the past two years. In Fresno State's three wins over Louisiana Tech in 2007-08, they hit 42 percent of their trifecta's and made at least 10 three-pointers in every game.
This season Fresno State has attempted 471 three-pointers in their 16 games, more than double the amount that the Lady Techsters (223) have attempted. The Bulldogs have made 158, or 9.8 per contest, and have three of the top 5 three-point shooters in the WAC percentage wise.
Fresno State has a very balanced offensive attack as the Bulldogs boast three players in double figures and another five players averaging 5.4 points per better.
Sophomore Jaleesa Ross, the 2008 WAC Freshman of the Year, leads FSU averaging 12.3 points per game (and 44 three-pointers made) followed closely by Bailey Amundsen (11.8 ppg, 41 threes) and Hayley Munro (10.7 ppg, 22 threes).
"They are also a very active team defensively," Long said. "They do a good job of putting pressure on you. We will need to execute well offensively. It's hard to stop Fresno State completely so we have to keep the pressure on them on our offensive end. We will have to play very well."
Tech has some offensive weapons of its own as the Lady Techsters boast three of the top five scorers in the WAC in forwards Shanavia Dowdell (16.1 ppg) and Adrienne Johnson (13.8 ppg) and guard Whitney Jones (14.4 ppg).
The contest can be heard on KXKZ 107.5 FM with the pregame show beginning at 6:30 p.m. Fans can also watch the game live over the Internet at www.latechtv.com for $4.99 by clicking on the athletics link on the top right side of the page.
