RUSTON | The Louisiana Tech women's basketball prepares for its solo contest of the week with a trip to Houston, Texas, to face the Rice Owls on Thursday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. inside Tudor Fieldhouse. The game can be seen on ESPN+. In addition, the live radio broadcast and live stats can be found on the LA Tech Athletics app. 
 
GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: Thursday, Feb. 2 | 7 p.m. CT
Location: Tudor Fieldhouse | Houston, Texas  
TV/Stream: ESPN+
Radio: KNBB 97.7 FM | LA Tech Athletics app
Stats: LATechSports.com/Stats | LA Tech Athletics app
 
ABOUT LOUISIANA TECH (12-9, 5-6 C-USA)
Louisiana Tech split a pair of home C-USA games last week, sweeping UAB (67-6) and dropping Saturday's contest to UTSA (63-66) to split the season series. 
 
With the UAB win, LA Tech became just the fifth college women's basketball program to reach 600 wins at home (Tennessee, Texas, Old Dominion, Stanford).
 
LA Tech's bench scored 49 points last week (23, 26 giving them double-digit bench production 18 times this season and 20-plus 13 times. 
 
Keiunna Walker moved No. 14 to No. 11 on the all-time scoring list, passing Debra Williams, Kierra Anthony, and Nora Lewis with 22 points against UTSA. Walker has reached 15 straight games in double figures and has 1,765 career points. 
 
Lotte Sant is shooting .615 from three during conference play hitting 24-39. She needs three more made threes to pass head coach Brooke Stoehr and Kierra Anthony for No. 8 all-time. 
 
Tech leads Conference USA in three-point percentage (.347) and ranks No. 2 in field goal percentage (.448) and free throw percentage (.777) while averaging 65.6 PPG. Defensively, the Techsters rank second in the conference in scoring defense (60.6 PPG) and defensive field goal percentage (.380). 
 
Tech is 9-0 this season when holding teams to less than 60 points and 8-0 when outrebounding the opposition. Tech is also 7-1 when scoring more than 70.
 
ABOUT RICE (14-5, 5-5 C-USA)
Rice got off to its best start in program history, winning their first nine contests in the non-conference, including three straight at Texas A&M (66-58), TCU (68-58), and a 91-88 double overtime win over Houston, and received votes in the AP and UTSA Today polls early in the year.
 
Rice fell for the first time this season in their C-USA opener at home to Middle Tennessee (68-74) and dug a 1-5 hole in the C-USA standings, but Rice has rebounded, winning four of their last five to even up their C-USA record. Last week, Rice split on the Road with Charlotte (61-66) and UAB (67-57). 
 
Ashlee Austin, a C-USA second-team performer last season, was tabbed on the conference's Preseason team and headlined a balanced Owl attack as one of three players averaging double figures at 12.8 PPG. 
 
Malia Fisher, who earned All-Freshman last season, scores 11.9 a game while leading the team with 7.2 RPG, which is good for No. 3 in C-USA.
 
Rice's 73. 8 PPG is second in C-USA on .448 shooting (No. 2), while their 68.6 PPG allowed is second to last on .433 shooting. The Owls also rank top-three in the conference in three-point percentage (.316) and free throw percentage (.777). 
 
Rice is the No. 1 team in the nation in points per possession (1.318) and field goal percentage (.636) around the rim. 
 
THE SERIES
Thursday's matchup will be the 33rd overall meeting between the Techsters and the Owls, which began in 2000-01. Tech holds a slight 17-15 edge all-time, but Rice has a 10-4 mark in games played in Houston. LA Tech won seven of the first nine meetings, preceded by two wins each over the next ten meetings. Tech then took the next four. 
 
Tech & Rice split last season's series, which produced one of the most historic nights in women's college basketball history. Keiunna Walker and Anna Larr Roberson became the only duo to register a 25-15-10 triple-double and 40-plus point night by a set of teammates. 
 
Walker recorded the fourth triple-double in program history, while Roberson scored the fifth-most points in a single game (44) on a record-tying 20 made field goals in a 90-80 double-overtime victory.
 
The win snapped a seven-game skid to the Owls and marked Tech's first home win over Rice since 2017-18. Tech extended the streak to two with a 79-74 win over the Owls earlier this season. 
 
The double overtime game last season was the fifth time in series history a game has reached an overtime period and was the first to reach two extra periods. Four of the previous 14 have reached extra time.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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