Oct. 31, 2011
RUSTON - Teresa Weatherspoon and the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters will open their exhibition season Tuesday at 7 p.m. when they host Arkansas-Monticello at the Thomas Assembly Center.
The Lady Techsters return seven letter winners from last year's Western Athletic Conference championship team that advanced to the program's second straight NCAA Tournament - and the 27th in the program's history - including three starters in seniors Jasmine Bendolph, Whitney Jones and Shantale Bramble-Donaldson.
Jones, who was granted her sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA, is Tech's leading returning scorer after averaging 10.0 points per game last season. Bendolph (8.0 ppg), Bramble-Donaldson (7.4 ppg) and Kiara Young (5.7 ppg) also contributed on a nightly basis to the Lady Techsters scoring column.
The program also welcomes five newcomers in freshmen Kanedria Andrews, Whitney Frazier, Courtney Hayes and Savanna Langston as well as junior Brittany Hardy.
"All five of our newcomers are impact players," Weatherspoon said. "You will definitely see some young talent on the floor this year. They each have their own strengths as well as areas where they must grow and improve. All five of them will definitely have an impact on our team this year."
The Lady Techsters have a pair of exhibition games - Tech also hosts Delta State Nov. 8 - where that they can use to prepare for the season opener on Nov. 11 against Missouri State. Tech's non-conference schedule includes 15 games with 13 of those coming against programs that posted a winning record last season.
Although Weatherspoon knows that it will take some time for her young team to gel, she said she expects to see great effort starting with the exhibition games.
"It's import to defend," Weatherspoon said. "We must be a great defensive team and a great rebounding team. If we aren't both of those, we are in trouble. As everyone always reminds us, we are small. It's something we don't use as an excuse. "We will always be prepared for whoever we play. If we always defend and rebound, we can be successful. Those are the two main things I'm looking for tomorrow night."
Arkansas-Monticello is coming off a 6-20 season but the Blossoms return their top three scorers from a year ago in Alex Hart (14.4 ppg), Channon Haygood (11.2 ppg) and Chelsea Johnson (10.9 ppg).
Tech defeated Arkansas-Monticello 88-65 in an exhibition game last year at the Thomas Assembly Center.
Fans can follow the action through GameTracker on the www.latechsports.com. There will be no radio broadcast or video stream of any of the exhibition contests.
Admission is free to all exhibition games this season.
