RUSTON, La. – The Louisiana Tech women's basketball team evened their conference record with a 62-57 road win over UTSA in San Antonio Thursday night.
Four Techsters scored in double figures, including 15 points from
Lotte Sant on five made threes.
Keiunna Walker had a team-high 20 points, while
Salma Bates added 12 and
Amaya Brannon added 10. Bates also led the team with six rebounds and four assists.
The first half featured a number of mini-runs, seven lead changes, and three ties. UTSA (2-8, 0-1 C-USA) built their largest lead of the half at four, 26-22, until back-to-back threes from
Amaya Brannon and
Salma Bates gave LA Tech (8-4, 1-1, C-USA) a two-point lead with 4:07 remaining in the half.
UTSA capitalized on a LA Tech drought finishing the half on a 7-0 run, including a half-court buzzer-beater to take a 33-28 lead at the break.
Bates hit her second triple of the game to break the drought, which fueled a 7-2 start to the third quarter for LA Tech to tie the game at 35 with 6:52 left in the quarter.
The Roadrunners responded with an 8-2 run over the next three minutes to build their largest lead of the night at six (43-37), but the Techsters promptly followed with a 7-2 answer, capped off Sant's third triple of the game (44-45). UTSA finished the quarter with a bucket to send the game into the final 10 minutes at 47-44.
Sant added two more threes to spark a 10-0 run to give Tech their largest lead of the game at seven (54-47) with 4:30 left in the game, but UTSA once again responded with an 8-2 spurt to cut Tech's lead back down to one (56-55), with 1:52 remaining.
In the final minute of play,
Amaya Brannon's free throw Tech a three-point edge (60-57), and after UTSA followed with two missed three throws on the next possession, Brannon added two more from the line to make it a five-point game.
Tech's defense held the final two possessions and held UTSA to just 10 fourth-quarter points to finish off the 62-57 win on the road.
LA Tech shot 42 percent from the floor, including a season-high eight made threes (8-19, .421) and a 16-18 night at the stripe (.889) while holding UTSA to 37 percent on the night and just 8-31 (.258) in the second half.
Tech is now 8-0 when holding opponents to under 60 points.
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Brooke Stoehr…
"I'm incredibly proud of our group. We gave such a gutsy effort in the second half and bounced back from giving up some easy buckets in the first. We made them execute more in the half-court, especially in the fourth quarter.
Lotte was so big tonight, using her experience. Wurm handled herself well stepping into the lineup, Keiunna kept us in it while taking a beating, and Amaya hits some big free throws down the stretch. Sal was great as well with an all-around game. We needed people to step up and show some heart. We did that tonight."
NOTABLES
• LA Tech now leads the all-time series 16-6 and is 7-4 in games played in San Antonio.
•
Keiunna Walker reached double figures for the 10th time this season with a team-high 20 points.
• Walker moved into the Lady Techsters top-20 in scoring, passing Lori Scott and Trina Frierson.
•
Mackenzie Wurm made her first career start.
• Wurm tied a career-high with three blocks and tied a season-high with five rebounds.
•
Lotte Sant surpassed 400 career points and hit her 100th career three-pointer.
• Sant finished with a career-high five made threes and tied her career-high in points with 15.
•
Salma Bates had four assists and has three or more in eight games this season.
• Bates reached double figures for the third time this season and tied a season-high with six rebounds.
• Bates also surpassed 500 career points in the game.
•
Amaya Brannon reached double figures for the fourth time this season and had a season-high three steals.
• Tech's bench has scored 15 points, reaching double digits in all 12 games this season.
UP NEXT
Louisiana Tech will return home for a New Year's Eve conference tilt against Charlotte on Saturday, Dec. 31 at 2 p.m. inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court. The game can be seen on CUSA.tv. Live stats and live radio can be heard on the LA Tech Sports App.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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