RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech women's basketball team had one of their best offensive nights in the last 20 years shooting 64 percent from the floor, including 7-12 from three, to capture their tenth win of the season, 81-66, over North Texas.
Four Techsters reached double figures including
Lotte Sant who had a career-high 17 on five made threes.
Keiunna Walker reached 20-plus for the third straight game (23),
Robyn Lee tied a season-high with 16, and
Salma Bates added 12.
Both teams found an offensive rhythm in the first quarter trading baskets for most of the quarter until LA Tech (10-6, 3-3 C-USA) finished on an 11-0 run over the final 2:45 of the stanza to take a 25-17 lead.
A
Mackenzie Wurm jumper gave Tech their largest lead of the half before North Texas (4-11, 1-4 C-USA) answered with back-to-back threes.
Robyn Lee was able to stretch the lead back to eight, but an 8-2 Mean Green run over the next four minutes would bring North Texas back to within two. Each team would add two baskets over the final 1:39 holding Tech's lead to two at the half (37-35).
In the third, Tech was able to string together another 11-0 run followed by a 9-0 over the final 3:26 of the period en route to a 26-9 quarter building a 19-point lead (63-44).
North Texas would not go away, starting the final quarter on a 13-5 run over the first 2:46 to cut their deficit to 11 (68-57), but a Bates three followed by a pair of free throws and Sant's fifth three of the night pushed Tech's lead back to 19 with 4:21 remaining (76-57).
Tech would empty their bench in the final minutes and coasted to the 14-point victory and marking win No. 599 for the program's all-time in Ruston.
Tech finished the night tying a season-high 30 made field goals on 47 shots (.643), while North Texas hit 25-56 (.446) and 7-13 from three (.53.8). Tech is now 8-1 when scoring 70 or more and 9-1 when leading entering the fourth quarter.
LA Tech's 35 bench points mark the second-most this season and their 38 points in the paint mark the seventh time this season to reach 30-plus.
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Brooke Stoehr…
"Our biggest thing has been concentrating on the turnover margin to value possessions and increase our chances on offense. We have been really efficient on offense but we need more shots. We weren't our best defensively tonight, but when we did get stops it allowed us to get some easy looks in transition and that settles us down. We have to commit on the defensive end to communicate more consistently and we saw what we can do in the third quarter tonight.
We need these games from Lotte and Robyn. When we go to these small lineups it opens the floor up for us so much and with them shooting the ball like we have, it gives us so much more. Our guards did a great job attacking down hill and penetrating to find our shooters.
We get an extra day to prepare for UAB on Saturday since we played on Wednesday night and that will help get our legs back under us, give us some time to adjust and fix defensively. We will have to be really good defensively and against a team that is athletic and can really spread it around. We of course are looking forward to getting healthy and back to full strength and it's exciting to think where we can be."
NOTABLES
• LA Tech leads the all-time series 16-4 and now has an 8-2 edge in games played in Ruston. Tech has now won three in a row and four of the last five over North Texas.
• Tech's 64 percent shooting marked its best single-game percentage since Jan. 30, 2003, against Boise St. (.642).
• Tech has six threes in six straight games, going 7-12 tonight.
• Tech's bench reached double figures for the 13
th time this season and has 20-plus in 10, scoring 35.
•
Keiunna Walker has reached double digits in 10 straight games and had her sixth 20-point outing, including four of her last five, scoring a game-high 23.
•
Lotte Sant reached double figures for the fourth time this season with a career-high 17 points. Sant tied a career-high with five made three-pointers and has multiple threes in nine games this season. She moved into the program's all-time top-10 list in three-point makes.
• Sant also had a season-high five rebounds and two steals.
•
Salma Bates now has three or more assists in 12 games this season, including nine in a row. Bates reached double figures for the sixth time this season, her third straight game scoring 12.
•
Silvia Nativi has registered three-plus assists in 13 games this season.
•
Robyn Lee moved passed 300 career points and tied a season-high with 16 reaching double figures for the fourth time this season. It was Lee's 10th career-game in double figures.
•
Mackenzie Wurm has registered at least one block in six straight games.
• Tech improves to 6-0 following a loss this season.
UP NEXT
Louisiana Tech heads to Birmingham, Ala. for a Conference USA matchup on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 2 p.m. CT inside Burtow arena to face UAB. The game can be seen on CUSA.tv. and heard on the LA Tech Athletics app.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For all the latest in Lady Techsters Basketball, follow them on Twitter (@LATechWBB), Instagram (@LATechWBB), and Facebook (LATechWBB).
