Nov. 18, 2010
GameDay Page
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - After two straight home wins to open the season, Louisiana Tech faces it first road test of the year Friday night when the Lady Techsters travel north to face UALR at the Jack Stephens Center at 7 p.m.
Tech (2-0) owns two impressive wins over postseason tournament teams from a year ago with its 79-46 win over Prairie View A&M and a 71-55 victory over Western Kentucky.
The Lady Techsters will face by far their biggest challenge of the early season against the Trojans, which return the nucleus of last year's team that won 26 games, captured the Sun Belt Conference title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
UALR (1-1) is led by senior forward Chastity Reed, the preseason Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year. The 6-foot-1-inch Reed, a native of New Orleans, is averaging 24.0 points per game through the Trojans first two contests.
Reed will be the first of three straight preseason conference Players of the Year that the Lady Techsters will face over the next three games as Tech plays CUSA Player of the Year Courtney Taylor of Houston on Tuesday and Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year Casey Garrison of Missouri State the following game.
"UALR is a very talented team; a very well-coached team," said Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. "They run their system and they run it well. Chastity Reed will be one of the best players we will face this year, and we play some good ones. It will be another great challenge for our basketball team."
The Trojans owns an impressive 75-51 win over a quality Davidson team, but will be looking to rebound after an 87-41 loss at No. 8 Texas A&M Saturday night.
Louisiana Tech counters with its own superstar in senior forward Adrienne Johnson. The Franklin native is averaging 25.5 points per game and owns a pair of 20-plus point performances already this season.
However, Johnson isn't the only offensive threat for LA Tech as guard Whitney Jones (12.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg), guard Jasmine Bendolph (10.0 ppg, 4.0 apg) and guard Tarkeisha Wysinger-Mackey (9.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg) have all been consistent through the first two games of the year.
Tech leads the all-time series against UALR 6-1 although the Lady Techsters lost the only other game ever played at the Jack Stephens Center by a score of 70-60 in 2007-08. UALR is 66-9 in the facility since it opened and has only lost three non-conference games ever in the arena.
The game can be heard on the LA Tech Sports Network on ESPN 97.7 FM with the pregame show beginning at 6:30 p.m. Tech fans can also access the audio via the internet by purchasing a subscription to LA Tech All-Access at www.latechsports.com.
