Walker, Harris lead LA Tech to road win at UTSA

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Louisiana Tech saved its best for last.

After struggling through a first half that saw it score only 19 points, Louisiana Tech exploded in the third and fourth quarters to defeat UTSA 69-51 Friday night at the Convocation Center.

Keiunna Walker scored 22 points and Bre Harris added 18 points and 10 rebounds – her first career double double – as the Lady Techsters (8-3, 3-2 C-USA) took game one of the two-game series.

Tech shot just 8-of-31 from the field in the opening two quarters and trailed 24-19 at the half.

“I just thought UTSA was more aggressive in the first half,” said Tech head coach Brooke Stoehr. “They got all the loose balls. When you don’t shoot the ball well and you are not making layups or free throws, then you better find a way to get a loose ball. I just thought UTSA was quicker to a number of 50-50 balls. We were down on the boards at the half. I just wasn’t real pleased with their effort. We just looked sloppy. We couldn’t stand up. It looked like the ball had 40 thousand pounds of air in it.”

After taking an early 5-4 lead on a jumper by Harris with five minutes to play in the first quarter, Tech went more than seven minutes without a point. By the time Walker converted on a fast break layup with 7:35 to play in the second quarter, the Lady Techsters were playing catch up.

UTSA (2-8, 0-5) led 24-16 just seconds before halftime before Harris hit a three-pointer to close Tech to within 24-19 at the break.

The second half was a different story. Tech shot 18-of-31 from the field in the third and fourth quarters to end the game at 42 percent (26-62). The Lady Techsters also forced 11 second half turnovers while only committing two in the final 20 minutes of action.

“Give our players credit, we came out and played with much more energy after halftime,” said Stoehr. “We had 19 points at the half and I thought dear God, we may be lucky to get to 40. At the end of the day, we got a road win. We will go back and watch this and see the difference in our energy and concentration from the first half to the second half.”

Despite Tech’s second half shooting, UTSA still held a 38-33 lead with 2:07 to play in the third quarter. But the Lady Techsters scored the final five points of the stanza to tie the game at 38-38 and then outscored the Roadrunners 31-13 in the fourth quarter.

Walker scored 20 of her game-high 22 points after halftime while Harris added 12 of her 18 in the third and fourth quarters. Raizel Guinto ended the night with 13 points, including a pair of momentum-changing conventional three-point plays down the stretch.

“I thought Bre came in and made some big plays for us,” said Stoehr. “I thought Walker made some big plays down the stretch. Raiz made some plays and had some shots go in. The biggest thing is we got stops. You look at the third and fourth quarter. We held them to 51. It was a matter of us waking up offensively. I thought we got defensive boards and pushed in transition which was a key for us in the second half.”

Tech outscored UTSA 46-22 on points in the paint and 22-4 on fast break points. The Lady Techsters held UTSA to 51 points, marking the fifth straight C-USA game that the opponent scored 61 or fewer.

Mikayla Woods led UTSA with 18 points while Karrington Donald added 12 points.

The two teams will return to action Saturday at 4 p.m.