Jan. 14, 2010

Box Score

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Shanavia Dowdell scored 18 points and Adrienne Johnson added 16 to lead Louisiana Tech to a 92-48 win over San Jose State in Western Athletic Conference action Wednesday night at The Events Center.

Tech (10-4, 1-1 WAC) led from the opening tip and never looked back in defeating the Spartans for the 17th straight time in the series.

"This win started in practice," said Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. "It didn't start tonight when we stepped on the floor. These kids were focused all week long; they knew that they had to prepare to win.

"We shot the ball well in practice all week. We shot the ball well today in shoot-around. It's all a mindset and this week we came with the right attitude and work ethic. I'm proud of how we rebounded after such a disappointing loss last week."

Tiawana Pringle and Jasmine Bendolph hit back-to-back three-pointers to open the game as Tech built and early 6-0 advantage. After San Jose State (4-12, 0-3 WAC) cut the Tech lead down to 7-6 on a jumper by Sayja Sumler at the 16:12 mark of the half, the Lady Techsters used a 15-0 run over the next six minutes to push the advantage to 22-6.

A Tarkeisha Wysinger layup at the 8:37 mark of the opening stanza gave LA Tech its first 20-point lead of the night at 30-10. With Tech leading 39-19, the Lady Techsters closed the half on a 17-3 run to push their lead to 56-22 at the half.

Whitney Jones closed the half with a running 25-foot three-pointer as the buzzer sounded as the Lady Techsters connected on 51 percent (22-43) of their shots in the opening half, including 7-of-13 from beyond the arc.

All nine LA Tech players that saw the floor in the first half scored led by Dowdell's 10 points and Bendolph's eight. Pringle, Jones and Brietta Thomas all added seven first half points as the Lady Techsters scored the most points in a half this season.

Tech outscored the Spartans 23-0 off of turnovers in the first half as San Jose State committed 16 turnovers to only five by the Lady Techsters.

The second half wasn't much better for the Spartans as Tech pushed the lead to 40 at 70-30 on a Jones three-pointer at the 13:35 mark.

Johnson then hit a milestone a few minutes later as she hit two free throws at the 8:30 mark of the second stanza to become the 39th Lady Techster to ever score 1,000 points in a career. She also pulled down her 500th career rebound in the game.

With Tech leading 90-36 with just over five minutes to play, Weatherspoon pulled Dowdell, Johnson, Jones and Bendolph as San Jose State ended the game on a 12-2 run.

For the game, Tech hit 52 percent (35-68) of its field goals and 10-of-22 from the three-point line while holding SJSU to only 34 percent (21-61) from the field.

Jones added 13 points while Thomas chipped in with 11 points.

Britney Bradley led the Spartans with 12 points while Marnesha Hall added 10 points. Tech held SJSU's leading scorer Chasity Shavers to only two points on 1-of-7 shooting.

Tech returns to action Saturday night at home against New Mexico State at 7 p.m. at the Thomas Assembly Center.