BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky – Less than 48 hours after falling in triple overtime at Marshall, Louisiana Tech had the tough task of facing WKU at E.A. Diddle Arena Saturday afternoon.

And in the first half against the Lady Toppers, the Lady Techsters looked like a tired basketball team as WKU raced out to an early lead and pushed to an 18-point halftime lead.

However, with their back against the wall, the Lady Techsters (10-11, 2-6) showed the fight that head coach Brooke Stoehr has been looking for, cutting the deficit down to one possession late in the fourth quarter before falling 81-76.

"We can try to move on (from the Marshall loss) but they are 18 to 22-year-olds and we have been feeling it for the last 42 hours," said Tech head coach Brooke Stoehr. "I think the slow start was a little bit of that, but I think it was all the things we talked about in our preparation as far as live ball turnovers and defending without fouling. They shot 19 free throws in the first half and there was a big discrepancy. I thought we fouled on some of those, but again, there was a big discrepancy.  Those two things hurt us in the first half."

After surrendering 32 points in the second quarter, Tech trailed 53-35 at the half. The WKU lead ballooned to 57-36 just two minutes into the third quarter before the Lady Techsters flipped a switch and came storming back. Tech held WKU (12-9, 6-1) to only six points in the third quarter as the Lady Toppers were just 3-of-15 from the field during the frame, including going without a field goal for the final 6:35 of the stanza

"We came out in the second half and we got stops," said Stoehr. "We held them to six points in the third quarter. I thought we had some players like DeAndre'a (Alexander) and Reauna (Cleaver) really step up down low in the second half (when Zhanae Whitney went out with an injury). That's what we need.

"It was a tale of two halves. I'm certainly not happy we lost but I needed to see some fight from this group. They were enjoyable to coach in that second half because they listened, they were coachable and they were fighting for each other. They were executing in what we talked about in timeouts. This group can win games when we do that. We just dug ourselves too deep of a hole."

Tech entered the fourth quarter trailing 59-50 and with just over 4 minutes remaining in the game, the WKU lead was 71-61. However, Tech continued to battle and when Raizel Guinto hit back-to-back three-pointers, the Lady Techsters had closed the cap to 73-70 with 2:30 to play in the game. Guinto tied her career-high with 19 points, including hitting 6-of-9 from the three-point line.

"Raizel was big," said Stoehr. "We need another guard that is going to be a threat out there offensively, that other teams have to guard and defend. She knocked down some shots but I thought her biggest contribution was her command with the ball in her hands; five assists and only two turnovers."

After a defensive stop, Tech had possession of the basketball with a chance to tie with a three-pointer but the Lady Techsters committed one of the few turnovers of the second half. WKU would score four straight points to push the lead to seven and Tech would get no closer than five the rest of the way.

Tech's rally was aided by a strong job on the glass in the second half. After being outrebounded 17-11 in the first two quarters, Tech outrebounded WKU 26-17 in the second half, including 13 offensive boards. Grayson Bright led Tech with nine rebounds, five offensive, while Kierra Anthony added six and Bri Harris grabbed five.

"Grayson was very active," said Stoehr. "It's something we stay on her about as far as being consistent with that because she is so active and is such an energy player for us. She got two offensive rebounds point blank under the basket (in the fourth quarter) and kicked them both back out. Now granted, Raizel hit a three-pointer off of one of them but that's what we need."

Anthony led Tech with 23 points, six rebounds and three assists while Harris added nine points along with her five boards. Amber Dixon scored seven points, grabbed three boards and added a team-high six assists for Tech.

"My message to this group is there is a lot of basketball left to be played," said Stoehr. "By no means are we happy that we are 2-6. I'm as sick as anyone. But I've also had teams that it took almost all season to figure out how to play together as a group and how we needed to win and those teams went to the NCAA Tournament. If we can get the effort, focus, execution and ball movement that we had in this second half then this group will win games. We can't get caught up in all the outside noise and our current record."

Dee Givens and Raneem Elgedawy led WKU with 18 points each.

Tech returns home to host Florida Atlantic Thursday and FIU on Saturday.