Jan. 30, 2009

Box Score

RUSTON -- Sophomore guard Whitney Jones scored a game-high 22 points to lead Louisiana Tech to a 77-51 win over New Mexico State in Western Athletic Conference action Friday night at the Thomas Assembly Center.

Jones scored 19 first half points, including hitting 5-of-6 from beyond the arc, to help the Lady Techsters (11-10, 4-3 WAC) build a commanding 48-25 halftime lead as Tech coasted to the victory.

"We really shot the ball well tonight," said Tech head coach Chris Long. "We were a little surprised that they played so much zone against us, but we did a great job of being very patient offensively and not taking the first open look that came to us. We passed up some open looks early in our offense to try to get better shots. We executed tonight."

The Lady Techsters, who hit a season low 24 percent of their field goals in a 52-42 loss at Boise State five days ago, connected on their first five shots of the game to build an early double digit lead at 12-2 with 16:04 to play.

After New Mexico State (6-15, 2-5) cut the lead to 12-6, Tech used a 16-2 run over the next four minutes to take a 26-8 lead with 11:51 to play in the half..

Jones spearheaded a prolific perimeter shooting performance by the Lady Techsters in the opening 20 minutes, hitting five three pointers while as a team LA Tech connected on 8-of-14 in the first half.

Tech hit 52 percent (18-35) of its field goals in the first half while limiting the Aggies to only 25 percent (8-32) as the lady Techsters led 48-25 at the intermission.

"I thought we came out with great energy tonight," Long said. "I thought that we really got into the passing lanes and got some steals that led to some easy baskets. You could tell that we were focused and excited about playing tonight. I think across the board our players were disappointed in the loss at Boise State and wanted to get back on the court."

New Mexico State never threatened in the second half as the closest the Aggies would get was 23 points at 52-29 with 18:13 to play while the Techsters opened up their biggest lead of the game at 66-36 midway through the second half before Long emptied the Tech bench.

"I thought our bench played well for the most part," Long said. "We really needed to get our starters some rest and our bench some minutes so this was a great opportunity. This was really a team effort tonight."

In addition to Jones' performance, Shanavia Dowdell and Adrienne Johnson each scored 14 points as nine of the 10 LA Tech players scored.

Danisha Corbett led New Mexico State with 13 points followed by Madison Spence with 12 and Kaitlyn Soto with 10.

"I thought that Pringle did a really good job on Spence," Long said. "Spence is so tough to defend and if you give her an open look, she doesn't usually miss. For the most part, we made it tough on her tonight."

Tech returns to action Feb. 6 when it hosts Idaho at 7 p.m.