Jan. 2, 2011

Box Score

RUSTON - Adrienne Johnson scored a career-high 34 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lift Louisiana Tech to an 83-61 win over Southern Mississippi before 1,513 fans at the Thomas Assembly Center Sunday afternoon.

Johnson recorded her third double double of the week, connecting on 14-of-23 field goals, 1-of-3 three-pointers and 5-of-6 free throws while adding two steals and one assist in 37 minutes of play.

With the win, LA Tech (8-5) wraps up the non-conference portion of its schedule which ranked in the Top 25 in the country as far as difficulty and now prepares for its Western Athletic Conference opener at San Jose State Thursday at 7 p.m. CT.

"I was pleased with how we played defensively for the most part," said Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. "I thought our kids tried to execute our game plan. We weren't perfect by any means but they went out there and gave the effort we needed.

"I also thought we did a pretty good job of not turning the basketball over against their pressure. Fifteen (turnovers) is still more than we want but we are showing some improvement in that area."

For the game, Tech shot 46 percent (32-70) from the field, but hit only 6-of-23 from beyond the arc.

"I thought early in the game we were settling for too many three-pointers," Weatherspoon said. "I don't know where that came from. We have to learn to make one more pass. Although most of the jumpers were open looks, a lot of times we could have gotten a better look with one more pass."

Tech scored the first six points of the game and never trailed as it improved to 4-1 all-time against the Golden Eagles (5-8).

Behind a strong start from Johnson, who scored 16 of Tech's first 22 points, the Lady Techsters took a 22-15 lead with 6:28 to play on jumper by the Franklin native. Leading 25-19, Johnson added another jumper and then Angie Felton hit a three-pointer to give LA Tech its biggest lead of the first half at 30-19.

Tech led 35-25 at the half.

Southern Miss scored the first bucket of the second half to cut the lead to 35-27 but that was as close as the Golden Eagles would get as the Lady Techsters hit 52 percent (18-35) of their field goals in the final 20 minutes of play.

The only question was whether Johnson would set a new career high. However, a 15-foot jumper from the elbow with 5:22 to play in the game gave Johnson 32 points, one more than her former career-high of 31 against SMU in 2008-09.

In addition to Johnson's big game, Whitney Jones and Martina Holloway each added eight points while Tarkeisha Wysinger-Mackey registered four points, seven rebounds, a career-high seven assists and three steals in 27 minutes.

Tanesha Washington and Rachel Vigers led USM with 15 points each while Jameirra Faulkner added 13 points.