Feb. 23, 2009

Box Score

HONOLULU -- Sophomore forward Adrienne Johnson scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Louisiana Tech to an 89-71 win over Hawaii Sunday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The victory combined with losses by Nevada and Idaho leaves Louisiana Tech in sole possession of second place in the Western Athletic Conference standings only one game behind league-leader Fresno State.

Despite Johnson's eighth 20-plus point effort of the year, the Lady Techsters were far from a one-woman show as four players scored in double figures and all 11 players recorded points in the game.

Tech scored the 89 points -- second most on the year -- despite its leading scorer Shanavia Dowdell only netting seven points on 3-of-3 shooting.

"We tell each other all the time that we can not depend on just one person," said Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. "Everyone has to bring their A-game every night. The beauty of this game is that you can always contribute even if your shot is not falling. There is always something positive that you can do and all of our kids contributed tonight."

For the third straight game, Tech eclipsed the 50 percent shooting plateau as the Lady Techsters hit 54 percent (33-61) of their field goals, 50 percent (6-12) of their three-pointers and a season-high 85 percent (17-20) of their free throws.

"One thing that a shooter must do is be ready to shoot," Weatherspoon said. "When you are ready, good things happen. We have some great shooters with great strokes and we were knocking them down tonight. We did a good job of getting Hawaii out of that zone quickly."

Hawaii started the game in a tight zone, daring Tech's perimeter players to shoot and the strategy worked until midway through the opening 20 minutes when the Lady Techsters began to warm up.

Leading only 17-15 at the midway mark of the half, Tech hit 13 of its final 17 shots of the half and closed the first half on a 32-18 run taking a 49-33 lead into the locker room.

Tech shot 61 percent (20-33) from the field in the opening 20 minutes.

For the second straight game, Tech got excellent bench production as Tarkeisha Wysinger scored a season-high 12 points and the Lady Techster reserves totaled 35 points.

"I'm super proud of Tarkeisha with all that she has been through with her injury," Weatherspoon said. "She has been patient and waited for her turn and tonight was her time. She brings such great energy and she was big for us tonight."

Wysinger hit 4-of-4 field goals and 4-of-6 free throws in 11 minutes of action.

After Hawaii scored the first four points of the second half to cut the Tech lead down to 12, the Lady Techsters used a 21-4 run over the next eight minutes to build its biggest lead of the game at 70-41.

Hawaii would get no closer than the final margin of 18 points.

In addition to Johnson and Wysinger's performances, Tiawana Pringle added 11 points, six rebounds and six assists and Whitney Jones chipped in with 10 points and three steals.

Freshman Jasmine Bendolph had one of her best performances of the year with five points and seven assists in 15 minutes.

Megan Tinnin led Hawaii with 17 points.

Tech returns to action Saturday when it hosts Utah State in its final home game of the year starting at 6 p.m.