Lady Techsters fall to Rice in Houston, 72-64

Houston, Texas – The Louisiana Tech women’s basketball team fell Thursday night on the road to the Rice Owls inside Tudor Fieldhouse, 72-64.

A combination of hot shooting from Rice (6-8, 1-5 C-USA) and foul trouble found the Lady Techsters (10-8, 2-5 C-USA) down in a 40-28 hole at half-time.

Tech found themselves down early 11-4 with 6:19 left in the first quarter, but a 12-2 run capped off by a jumper from sophomore Anna Larr Roberson regained the lead (16-13) with less than a minute remaining in the quarter.

Roberson finished the night with 16 points and 10 rebounds to complete her seventh double-double of the season.

Rice continued their hot start going 9-13 from the floor in a 24-point second quarter and finished the half 7-13 from three-point range and 7-10 from the line to build the 12-point half-time lead.

Rice extended the margin to as many as 15 (49-34) with 7:31 left in the third while the fouls continued to pile up for the Techsters.

Down but not out, Tech put together a furious comeback effort over the next 10 minutes of play to cut the lead to four with just over five minutes to play in the game on a bucket from freshman Kate Thompson. Thompson finished the night with seven points and three rebounds before fouling out in the fourth.

Down the stretch, Rice was able to hold off two more late charges from the Techsters to secure the win.

Rice was led by Ashlee Austin who finished with a game-high 27 points including going 10-12 from the line.

Junior Keiunna Walker extended her double-digit scoring streak to 19 games with 16 points moving her past Teresa Weatherspoon for 38th on the all-time career scoring list for the Techsters.

Silvia Nativi and Robyn Lee each contributed eight points on the night for Tech.

NOTABLES
• The LA Tech and Rice series is now even at 15 games each. Tech is just 4-10 in games played in Houston.
• Keiunna Walker has now scored in double-figures in 19 straight games and is one of three players in C-USA to have scored in double-figures in every game this season (Savannah Wheeler- Marshall and Zakyia Weathersby – UAB).
• Walker’s 16 points tonight moves her past Hall of Famer Teresa Weatherspoon for 38th on the all-time career scoring list with 1,088 points.
• Anna Larr Roberson had her 11th straight game in double-figures, 15th this season, and now has seven double-doubles on the year.
• Roberson, the league leader in free-throw percentage (0.85) did not have an attempt tonight. Her current streak of made free-throw stills sits at 19.
• Roberson is just six rebounds shy of 500 for her career.
• Tech outscored the Owls 36-18 on points in the paint and 14-3 in bench points but Rice doubled up the Techsters from the free-throw line 22-11.

QUOTABLES
Head Coach Brooke Stoehr…
“It was a tough night on the road. We didn’t set the tone the way we needed to on the defensive end or on the glass tonight. We needed to make things more difficult than we did and keep them off the free throw line. We had some tough moments in the 2nd quarter that allowed them to establish a lead. This group continued to fight and got within reach at 4 in the 4th quarter. We have to regroup quickly and be ready to go against a tough North Texas team on Saturday.”

UP NEXT
The Lady Techsters complete the Texas road swing Saturday, January 29 when they the North Texas Mean Green at 3:30 p.m. inside The Super Pit in Denton, Texas.

SOCIAL MEDIA
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