FRISCO, Texas – Louisiana Tech saw its Conference USA Championship hopes come to an end Thursday with a 77-71 loss to East Division champion Middle Tennessee at the Star in the 2021 Air Force Reserve Women's Basketball Championships presented by Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Frisco.

Anastasia Hayes, the 2021 Conference USA Player of the Year, scored 34 points and Middle Tennessee used a 15-2 run to start the fourth quarter to build a double-digit lead and then hang on for dear life down the stretch.

"I am just really proud of how this team competed today," said Tech head coach Brooke Stoehr. "They have done it all year. It hasn't always been pretty, but they gave great effort all season. It wasn't any different today.

"I thought Middle Tennessee made some plays in the first quarter, they got going in transition and they hit some threes and really got going offensively. I thought we did a much better job of locking down defensively in the second and third quarters and we got going offensively."

Tech (14-10) led 51-50 after three quarters, but missed on nine of its first 10 shots in the final quarter while the Blue Raiders (15-7) hit 7 of 9 to begin the final stanza and building a 65-53 advantage with less than five minutes to play.

However, senior Raizel Guinto scored 17 of her career-high 22 points in the fourth quarter – including 17 of Tech's final 18 points – to pull the Lady Techsters to within three in the final 30 seconds. After Hayes missed two free throws, Tech had one last opportunity to tie it but a turnover on a jump ball with 10 seconds to play sealed the fate.

"It's a one possession game with less than 20 seconds to play, and we had a sideline inbounds play," said Stoehr. "We just couldn't execute on it. Bottom line is we gave up 77 points and we didn't get stops when we needed to today."

After jumping out to an early 9-4 lead, Tech saw Middle Tennessee use a 20-4 run over the next five minutes to build a 24-13 advantage late in the first quarter. But the Lady Techsters fought back as they have all year, and took a 31-30 lead on an Amber Dixon layup with 3:14 to play before the half.

Middle Tennessee scored the final six points of the second quarter to lead 36-31 at the break.

Tech responded with an impressive third quarter, hitting 8-of-13 of its field goals – including a pair of three-pointers by Lotte Sant – to outscore the Blue Raiders 20-14 and take the one-point lead into the final 10 minutes of play.

Guinto hit 5 three-pointers in the game to move into third place in the LA Tech record books with 169, moving past Whitney Jones. Guinto only trails Tamicha Jackson (187) and Aarica Ray-Boyd (184) on the Tech list.

For the second straight game, sophomore forward Anna Larr Roberson was big, scoring 18 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Keiunna Walker, who fouled out late in the fourth quarter, ended with 13 points and six boards.

"I think this team has been incredible. I am extremely proud of them. To be 18 to 22 year olds and to have your world turned upside down is hard. They made a lot of sacrifices for the opportunity to compete. I am so incredibly grateful for their willingness to do that this year, in a year when a lot of players and even teams didn't want to do that. I am really proud to be their coach.

Middle Tennessee advanced to the semifinals where the Blue Raiders will face UTEP. Rice and Old Dominion will meet in the other semifinal game Friday.