Jan. 27, 2010

Box Score

RENO - Shanavia Dowdell scored 31 points and grabbed 20 rebounds but it wasn't enough as Louisiana Tech fell 69-56 to Nevada Tuesday night at the Lawlor Events Center.

Dowdell became the first Lady Techster since Belinda Jones in 1977-78 to score at least 30 points and grab at least 20 rebounds in a game and only the third in LA Tech history, joining Jones and LaVerne Henderson.

However, Dowdell's monster performance couldn't offset an opening 20 minutes of basketball that saw the Lady Techsters hit only 6-of-33 field goals and trail 36-17 at the half.

"It's about effort," said Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. "I don't know what it's going to take for our kids to figure out they have to play from the opening tip. It was a complete collapse on both ends of the floor in the first half. It's unacceptable, and we are going to fix it. I can't wait to get back on the floor for practice."

With the loss, Tech fell to 12-6 overall, 3-3 in Western Athletic Conference play while Nevada improved to 10-9, 5-1 in league action.

A Dowdell field goal at the 17:36 mark of the opening half was the only shot that the Lady Techsters hit in their first 13 attempts from the field. In fact Dowdell was the only Lady Techster to hit a shot from the field in the first 12 minutes of the game until Tiawana Pringle buried a three-pointer at the 8:00 minute mark, cutting the Wolf Pack lead to 21-9.

However, Tech would get no closer than 10 points the rest of the half as it entered the locker room trailing 36-17. Dowdell scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the opening half of play.

Trailing by 19 at the half, LA Tech fought the entire second half to try to get back into the game. After Nevada opened a 20-point advantage at 39-19 with 18:08 to play, the Lady Techsters kept clawing away and eventually whittled the lead down to 44-31 on a jumper by Kiara Young at the 12:46 mark of the game.

Nevada pushed the advantage back out to 54-36 with 8;31 to play on a layup by Johnna Ward before Tech made on last run, closing the gap to 61-51 with 3:58 to play on a Dowdell layup.

Dowdell scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the second half alone.

"People don't realize what Shanavia faces every night," Weatherspoon said. "People gear their defense to stop her. She gets banged and pushed on but she still fights through it. Nevada couldn't stop her tonight. She just didn't have enough help tonight."

For the game, Tech hit only 17-of-63 field goals for a season-low 27 percent. Dowdell connected on 12-of-26 while the rest of the Techsters hit 5-of-37.

Jasmine Bendolph and Adrienne Johnson were Tech's next highest scorers with six points each.

Tahnee Robinson scored 25 points for the Wolf Pack while Shavon Moore added 11 points.

Tech returns to action Saturday when it hosts Idaho at 6 p.m. at the Thomas Assembly Center