Feb. 10, 2012

Game Day Central

MOSCOW - At times this season, Louisiana Tech has been a better road team than home team.

And after Thursday's come-from-behind 82-76 road victory at Utah State, the Lady Techsters (12-11, 5-3) hope to continue their solid play away from Ruston when they face the Idaho Vandals Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT at the Cowan Spectrum.

Tech, which is 5-3 in road games this season and winners of three straight WAC road games, is 14-0 all-time against Idaho, including a 66-54 victory in Ruston on Jan. 12. The Lady Techsters have remained perfect against the Vandals despite the fact that six of the last seven meetings have been decided by 10 points or less.

The Lady Techsters continue to see a balanced offensive attack that has seen nine different players lead them in scoring at different times this year. In the win over Utah State, freshman Whitney Frazier was one of four players in double figures as she scored a career-high 25 points - all coming in the second half.

Frazier's performance was the most points scored by a LA Tech freshman since Tamicha Jackson scored 26 in a win over Auburn on March 16, 1997.

"It was a big win for us on the road," said Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon following the game. "It was big to get the win and feel good about ourselves.

"That's the aggressiveness that I've seen (from Whitney) for a long time playing AAU and high school basketball. It takes some people longer than others to get use to college. I asked her to wake up for us in the second half. You have to score, defend, and be aggressive for us. She was very difficult to defend. She was the difference for us in the second half."

Shantale Bramble-Donaldson, who has been plagued with foul trouble recently, continues to lead Tech, averaging 11.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Jasmine Bendolph leads the WAC and ranks in the top 15 in the nation in assists at 6.1 per game and with her eight assists against Utah State, moved into seventh place in the Tech career record books.

Idaho (8-15, 3-5 WAC) has won three straight games after its 62-59 ovetime victory over New Mexico State Thursday night. Idaho is led by sophomore Alyssa Charlston, whose 14.6 scoring average and 8.4 rebounding average are both best on the team and fifth in the WAC.

She also ranks second on the team and fourth in the conference with 1.25 blocks per game, and shoots 47.6 percent from the field, the eighth best percentage in the league. Charlston has scored in double-figures in 11 straight games for Idaho, averaging 18.5 points per game in that span.

Also picking up her game during Idaho's win streak is senior Keri Arendse. She has scored in double-figures in all three games, averaging 14.7 points per game during the streak. She has done it by making multiple 3-pointers in each of those games, going a combined 8-for-20 (.400) from long range in that time.

The contest can be heard on the LA Tech Sports Network with the pregame show beginning at 7 p.m. CT.