Dec. 1, 2010

Box Score

STARKVILLE, Miss. - Whitney Jones scored 20 points and Shantale Bramble-Donaldson came into her own with 14 points as Louisiana Tech snapped a three-game losing streak, defeating Mississippi State 69-61 Wednesday night at Humphrey Coliseum.

With Tech (3-3) trailing 36-28 with 14:32 to play on a layup by Judith Tabala, Weatherspoon called a timeout and went to a zone defense. The move paid off as Mississippi State struggled against it while Jones and Bramble-Donaldson scored nine straight points to ignite a 20-4 run as the Lady Techsters grabbed a 48-40 lead.

"We wanted to change things up," said Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. "We had allowed (Mary Katherine Govero) a couple of open looks against our man and she made us pay. We felt we needed to slow things down for them offensively. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for us."

After pushing the advantage out to 59-48 on a three-pointer by Jones with 5:37 to play, Mississippi State made a late run closing the cap to 62-58 on a Tabala layup with 2:48 remaining in the game.

However, Adrienne Johnson hit a jumper and Bramble-Donaldson followed it up with another basket to seal the victory for the Lady Techsters.

"This was the effort we have been looking for the last few weeks," said Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. "You could see the kids were playing hard, having a good time and playing well. We ran our offense. We hit shots. We had everyone step up and this was the result."

Bramble-Donaldson finished with 14 points and seven rebounds while Johnson added 13 points and eight rebounds and Tarkeisha Wysinger-Mackey chipped in with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Tech shot 44 percent for the game, including 54 percent (19-35) in a second half that saw it score 49 points.

Tabala led Mississippi State with 15 points while Diamber Johnson added 14 points and Porsha Porter 10 points.

Tech returns to action Dec. 12 when it hosts Southern at 2 p.m.