RUSTON, La. – Grayson Bright scored a career-high 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead Louisiana Tech to an 86-55 win over Florida Atlantic Thursday night at the Thomas Assembly Center.

Tech (11-11, 3-6 C-USA) shot 47 percent from the field, hit 22-of-28 free throws in a game plagued by 50 combined fouls, and scored 24 points off 23 Florida Atlantic (4-17, 1-7) turnovers.

Coming off a pair of heartbreaking losses on the road, head coach Brooke Stoehr said her team needed a feel-good performance and the win.

"The one thing I love about this group is they are resilient," said Stoehr. "Even after the triple overtime loss at Marshall, this team bounced back and played hard and fought. I never question who they are. They are good kids. We just have to continue to fight and continue to teach.

"I try to let them know they are going to have bad days in the adult world when they grow up and have a job. Something isn't going to go their way. How do they handle it? We can put our heads down and pout or we can stand up and fight and band together and do the next best thing.  Sometimes I have to listen to my own self when I am saying that that I am not just telling them that, but that I'm living that. I think that is the challenge I've had to my staff. We have to continue to coach and to get better."

After a sluggish start offensively that saw Tech hold a 14-13 lead, the Lady Techsters used an 18-4 run over the next six minutes. A pair of Kierra Anthony free throws with 6:06 to play in the second quarter gave Tech a 32-17 lead.

Both teams struggled offensively over the next six minutes, but Keiunna Walker's three-pointer with 2 seconds to play in the second quarter sent the Lady Techsters into the halftime locker room leading 38-24.

Bright, who eclipsed her previous career-high of 13 points set against Old Dominion, scored 13 of her game-high 20 points after halftime. The Texas Tech transfer hit 8-of-12 field goals, 4-of-6 three-pointers and added two steals, two assists and one block in just 18 minutes of action.

"She is such an energy player for us," said Stoehr. "We feed off of that. WE have been on her about being aggressive and looking at the rim and trying to score more. She is a scoring threat. I think she is a double double in this league. We just need her to be that. It was good to see.

"I thought she played under control. We were laughing as she came out. I said 'Hey, no turnovers tonight.' She said, 'yeah that's my best stat.' It was good to see from her."

Tech outscored FAU 27-17 in the third quarter to push the lead to 65-41 at the end of three and coasted to the 31-point win.

"We settled in especially in the third quarter," said Stoehr. "After the first few possessions we started stringing some stops together and that led to some transition points and some easy offense for us. It was good to see that."

Head coach Brooke Stoehr was able to play all 13 players in the win with 11 reaching the scoring column. Anthony added 13 points on just 3-of-7 shooting from the field while Zhanae Whitney and Taylor Stahly both chipped in with nine points each.

"I think it's good that we got to play everyone significant minutes," said Stoehr. "It was great to get everyone some minutes. I thought we had some solid contributions from a lot of people and that was good to see. I thought everybody who went in gave us some good production."

Tech recorded 23 assists in the game while committing just 14 turnovers.

The Lady Techsters will return to action Saturday when they host FIU at 2 p.m.