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RUSTON - Chrisstasia Walter scored a season-high 26 points and Kevione Moten did her best Kareem Abdul-Jabbar impression in leading Louisiana Tech to an 88-71 win over Rice Saturday night before 2,415 fans at the Thomas Assembly Center.

Tech (10-8, 5-2 C-USA) led just 67-63 with 6:10 to play before Kanedria Andrews hit a three-pointer that started a 21-8 game-ending run. The loss was the sixth straight for Rice (6-12, 1-6) with four of those coming by six points or less.

"Credit to Rice," said Tech head coach Tyler Summitt. "Greg Williams has them playing hard. They play hard and get after it. They took charges and rebounded the ball. That might be one of the best offensive rebounding teams we face. They play very hard and it was a tough game.

"We took a timeout around 5:40 remaining and we said that this was our time to separate. We told our players that you have to show us that you are in better shape, or we will start conditioning next week. I think that is what set it off. I am proud of our players."

For the second straight game, the Lady Techsters recorded impressive offensive numbers against one of the top defensive teams in Conference USA. Rice entered the game allowing only 60.2 points per game, allowing a season-high of 77 against No.3 Texas. However, the Lady Techsters surpassed that by hitting 59 percent of their second half field goals and scoring 53 points after intermission.

Much of Tech's second half success was due to the play of Walter and Moten, who combined to score 32 points over the final 20 minutes of play.

Moten hit 8-of-8 field goals, including four hook shots in the lane, and scored a career-high 17 points while adding three rebounds and three blocks in 20 minutes.

"Mickie DeMoss, that's all I will say," Summitt said. "It is not me. Kevione has worked very hard. She is easily the most improved player since the beginning of the year. I am proud of her. She took over the game for a little bit."

Walter was 7-of-12 from the field and a perfect 11-of-11 from the free throw line while adding six rebounds, five steals and six assists without a turnover.

"The biggest thing was the zero turnovers," Summitt said. "She has been through a lot. She showed an incredible amount of mental toughness today. I am very proud of her."

Walter and the rest of the Tech guards continued to feed Moten in the low post as Rice had no answer for the 6-foot-4-inch sophomore.

"They are gaining a lot of confidence in her," Summitt said. "She made one or two and then they started feeding her. We went to an offense that we have not run much because it is specifically to try and get the ball down low. It is a pass and cut offense trying to get it down low. That is the first time we have used it in a game. They executed it and got her the ball."

Led by Moten's performance, LA Tech outscored Rice 50-26 on points in the paint.

"Kevione had 17, Brandi Wingate had 10 and (Whitney) Frazier had 11," Summitt said. "A lot of Chrisstasia's 26 points were layups attacking the basket. It was good. On the other hand, they got way too many paint points on us driving to the basket. We have to work on our penetration defense. I really thought our post defense was better. That was an improvement. We just have to get better on the penetration defense."

Although Rice shot 41 percent (26-64) for the game, LA Tech's man-to-man pressure forced 22 turnovers by the Owls compared to only 11 by LA Tech.

"They had 14 (turnovers) at halftime," Summitt said. "The problem with that is, even though we were getting some turnovers, they were getting easy layups once they broke our press. In the second half we went more to our man-to-man defense. I was proud of our post. They were going inside a lot. I think we handled it. All five people have to get better with penetration on defense."

Despite the final 17-point margin of victory, the contest was tight for the first 30 minutes as the game saw seven ties and 13 lead changes. Tech led 35-31 at halftime after scoring the final eight points of the opening half, but the Owls retook the lead early in the second half. Rice's final lead came at 44-42 with 16:13 to play in the game.

The 88 points by LA Tech marked the sixth time this season that the Lady Techsters have scored 80 or more points in a game (in 18 contests). Over the previous two seasons, LA Tech scored 80 or more points just six times in 63 games.

JaQuan Jackson added five points, a career-high six assists, five rebounds and zero turnovers in 20 minutes.

Christal Porter led Rice with 17 points and 11 rebounds while Maya Hawkins added 14 points and Nakachi Maduka added 13 points.

Tech returns to action Thursday when it travels to Bowling Green, Kentucky to face league-leader Western Kentucky, which was upset Saturday 64-63 at UTSA.