El PASO, Texas – Louisiana Tech women's basketball team battled back from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit in El Paso Saturday afternoon, but fell to UTEP 72-66 in a game that featured alternating runs from both squads.
Three Techsters reached double figures, led by
Keiunna Walker, who had 24 points, three assists, and two steals, followed by
Salma Bates and
Amaya Brannon, who had 14 and 13, respectively. Brannon chipped in five rebounds, while Bates added four assists, three rebounds, and two steals.
LA Tech (9-6, 2-3 C-USA) took the early initiative in the first stanza after a 7-7 start with an 8-0 run to pull ahead 15-7, but UTEP (10-3, 3-1 C-USA) responded with a 9-2 run of their own, courtesy of three Tech turnovers.
Keiunna Walker finished the quarter with four straight free throws to give Tech a 21-16 to end the quarter.
Walker continued with a three to start the second quarter and extended Tech's lead to eight, but the Miners strung runs together of 9-1 and 9-2 over the next six minutes to grab a 32-28 lead with 3:18 left in the half. UTEP ended the half up three, 36-33.
It was the Techsters' turn to start the third as they regained the lead with a 6-0 start (39-36) over the first two minutes, but Tech would struggle to score the remainder of the period, with Walker spending most of the quarter on the bench with three fouls. UTEP would finish the period 17-5 for a nine-point cushion after three (53-44).
After finding themselves down 12 early in the fourth quarter, Tech was able to battle back off runs of 9-3 and 8-0 to cut the Miner's lead to three with two minutes remaining.
After two buckets from the Miner's,
Gabbie Green's three and a layup from Walker got Tech within two with 10 seconds remaining, but UTEP's Elina Arike hit two free throws to stop Tech short of completing the fourth quarter comeback.
Tech shot it well again, hitting 53 percent of their looks, going 22-41 from the field including tying a season-high with nine threes. Tech also hit 13-16 (.813) from the line.
UTEP would not be out-done, hitting 10 three-pointers (10-21) and connecting 16-18 free throws (.889) while shooting 41.8 percent for the contest (23-55).
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Brooke Stoehr…
"I think our team showed up ready to play and competed hard, but our execution in the third quarter was not good, and it eventually cost us, allowing them to string together stops that led to them scoring. You have to give UTEP credit, they shot it very well today. We shot it well enough to win today and did enough scoring, but the lack of communication in some spots defensively gave them too many chances.
This one stinks because we were in a position to win, but the turnovers in the third didn't give us enough possessions. We just have to continue to battle and take advantage of these chances we have to win. Eventually, we will get everyone back healthy, but we believe this group is good enough to win now. We have to continue to fight, we have to continue to go to work for them and put them in the best positions possible to be successful. I know this group isn't going to quit, they never do."
NOTABLES
• LA Tech leads the all-time series 16-10 and falls to 8-6 on the road in El Paso, snapping Tech's three-game streak in the desert. UTEP also earns the season sweep over LA Tech.
• Tech has hit nine threes in back-to-back games, giving them a five-game stretch of six or more.
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Keiunna Walker moved past Whitney Frazier and Kay Ford for No. 16 on the all-time scoring list. Walker has reached double digits in nine straight games and had her fifth 20-point outing of the year with 24. She has 1,646 for her career.
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Lotte Sant has multiple threes in eight games this season. Sant is now three makes from cracking Tech's all-time top-10 and is 13 for her last 23 in the last five games.
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Salma Bates reached double figures for the fifth time this season (14 points) and now has three or more assists in eight-straight games (10th time this season) registering four today.
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Amaya Brannon reached double figures for the seventh time this season, her fourth game in a row. She had 13.
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Silvia Nativi had five assists, the seventh time this year she has registered five or more.
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Mackenzie Wurm tied her season-high with six rebounds and added a block giving her 10 over the last four games, the most in a four-game stretch for a Techster since Kevion Moten in 2014-15.
UP NEXT
Louisiana Tech returns home for a Conference USA play to face North Texas on Wednesday, Jan. 11, at 6 p.m. CT inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court. The game can be seen on CUSA.tv. and heard on the LA Tech Athletics app.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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