Dec. 16, 2009

Box Score

RUSTON - Adrienne Johnson scored 22 points and Shanavia Dowdell added 18 points and 13 rebounds to lead Louisiana Tech to a 94-61 win over McNeese State before 1,862 fans at the Thomas Assembly Center Wednesday night.

Tech (5-3) led from start to finish although the Cowgirls (3-6) kept things close for the first 25 minutes before the Lady Techsters pulled away for the 33-point victory.

"I give McNeese State a lot of credit," said Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. "They play extremely hard. We didn't do as good of a job early in the game of defending them as we needed to and some of that is a credit to them. They played with great effort tonight. I thought we did a lot of good things too."

Whitney Jones, who entered the game having hit only 2-of-15 three-pointers on the year, connected on 4-of-6 from beyond the arc to score 12 points while Tarkeisha Wysinger once again provided a spark off the bench with 10 points, two rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two assists in 18 minutes.

Tiawana Pringle added nine points while Jasmine Bendolph and Kiara Young each scored seven. All 10 LA Tech players who saw action scored in the game.

However, it was Dowdell who dominated the game early, scoring the first seven points of the game and 15 first half points to lead LA Tech to a 44-28 halftime advantage. Dowdell hit 7-of-9 field goals in the opening 20 minutes and almost had recorded a double double by the half with nine boards.

"Adrienne and Shanavia are such tough match-ups for a lot of teams and tonight was no different," Weatherspoon said. "Whitney (Jones) shot the ball well; she has been shooting well all week in practice so it didn't surprise me. We got a chance to play everyone and we needed to be able to do that. I still had to play Adrienne and Shanavia longer than I had planned."

A Wysinger layup at the 12:44 mark of the first half gave Tech its first double digit lead of the game at 21-10 before the Lady Techsters went cold, going more than four minutes without a point while McNeese State cut the advantage down to 21-15 on a pair of free throws by Raiyawna Gatlin at the 9:50 mark.

However, Wysinger got Tech started again with a bucket at the 8:22 mark as Tech outscored the Cowgirls 23-13 over the remainder of the first half.

Tech hit 53 percent (19-36) of its field goals in the first half, including 4-of-8 from the three-point line, while holding McNeese State to only 31 percent (11-35). The Cowgirls kept things close by outrebounding Tech 24-22, including pulling down eight offensive boards.

"Putbacks really hurt us in the first half," Weatherspoon said. "They were forcing us under the basketball and getting the offensive rebounds. We have to do a better job than we did tonight in that area."

After McNeese State cut the Tech lead down to 11 early in the second half, Johnson warmed up scoring 15 of her game-high 22 points in the final 20 minutes of play as Tech started to pull away.

Kendra Wells and Kiara Johnson proved tough to defend for LA Tech as Wells scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Johnson added 18 points.

For the game, Tech shot 55 percent (35-64) from the field, hit 8-of-18 three-pointers and connected on 16-of-23 free throws. The Lady Techsters also recorded 18 assists and only 13 turnovers while registering seven blocks and seven steals. McNeese State hit only 32 percent (23-71) of its field goals.

Tech returns to action Tuesday when it hosts Memphis at 6 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader with the Bulldogs.