Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
Lady Techsters 58, UAB 52
Birmingham, Ala. – Louisiana Tech used a total team effort and timely baskets to come away from Birmingham, Ala. with a 58-52 road conference USA win over the UAB Blazers inside Bartow Arena on Saturday.
The Lady Techsters improve to 10-7 overall and now 2-4 in conference play by taking down the top team in the West. UAB falls to 10-6 overall and 3-2 in C-USA.
The back-to-back wins puts LA Tech right back in the thick of things in conference USA’s West division race.
“I was really proud of this team’s grit and toughness,” said head coach Brooke Stoehr. “We got off to a slow start offensively but defended well and kept battling until we could get our scoring going. We had balance today and got some huge contributions off the bench in some big moments. We were able to get stops at key times and answered offensively each time UAB made a run. It was a great team effort to get an important road conference win.”
Both teams started the afternoon game cold from the floor. LA Tech started just 1-14 from the field over the first seven minutes, but fortunately for the Techsters, UAB didn’t fare much better starting only 1-10 from the field.
Tech found themselves down 8-4 with 2:30 left in the first quarter when a Salma Bates three-pointer kick started the Techsters offense. Freshmen Kate Thompson and Amaya Brannon added buckets to help the Techsters close the first quarter on a 7-0 run and take a 13-8 lead into the first intermission.
LA Tech found more of a rhythm in the second quarter scoring on five of their next six attempts to extend the lead to 26-18 with 2:23 left in the first half, including six quick points from junior Keiunna Walker who finished with a game high 20 points.
In the final minutes of the half, Bates added another score to give the Techsters a seven-point cushion at the break (28-21).
Sophomore Anna Larr Roberson, the conference’s leader in free-throw percentage at 85 percent, connected on two attempts to start the second half for the Techsters. Roberson has now made 19 straight free throws.
Bates added another three-throw nearly four minutes into the quarter but Tech did not score from the field until Walker hit a jumper with 5:26 left in the quarter.
Tech and UAB finished the third stanza exchanging punches but the combination of Walker, Roberson, and Thompson helped maintain a four-point lead going into the fourth quarter (42-38).
The final 10 minutes was marked by big play after big play by Techsters. Clinging to a four-point lead, Tech was able to generate offense from defense. Sophomore Lotte Sant nailed a three-pointer in transition off a great pass from Bates which was created off a Brannon steal. The shot put the Techsters up 47-40 with 8:34 to play.
UAB responded with a 4-0 run of their own to cut the lead to three, but Tech answered right back with a 9-0 over the next 2:30. Thompson began the run off a beautifully designed out of bounds play which led to a wide-open layup.
Thompson and Roberson both hit jumpers on the next two possessions followed by Bates finding freshman Robyn Lee in the corner for a three. Lee was found wide open off another out of bounds set who drilled the attempt extending the Techsters lead to 56-44 with 3:59 to play.
UAB continued to battle using an 8-0 run over the next three minutes to cut the lead to four when Brannon finished a put-back effort off a Walker miss to seal the 58-52 road win the Techsters.
UAB 83, LA Tech 76
RUSTON – Louisiana Tech had its seven-game winning streak come to an end on Saturday afternoon, falling 83-76 to UAB inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court.
“We are obviously disappointed,” said Tech head coach Eric Konkol. “Give a lot of credit to UAB. They played very well today. I thought we played well in moments, but the moments we did not they capitalized on. You never want to feel like you have to outscore somebody and we were struggling to get stops.
“I thought we played some really good desperation mode there in the end. We had a hard time stopping them. We were turning the ball over and that led to easy shots for them. It comes down to execution and thought they executed a little bit better than us.”
LA Tech (15-4, 6-1 C-USA) committed 18 turnovers, the second most in a game this season. Four of them came in the opening two minutes, which quickly put the Bulldogs in a hole, down 15-2 early.
They were behind by as much as 15 in the first half, but Amorie Archibald kept the ‘Dogs in it with six three-pointers in the first stanza. The sixth one from behind the arc came as the clock expired, cutting the deficit down to eight, 41-33, at the midway point.
After UAB (16-4, 6-1 C-USA) made 16 first-half field goals, the Bulldogs came out strong defensively in the second half. They forced nine misses on the Blazers first 10 field goal attempts. As a result, LA Tech was able to claw back and grab its first lead of the game at 50-47 with 13:02 to go on an offensive rebound and putback by Kenny Hunter.
UAB’s Jordan Walker quickly answered with a three-pointer. And that continued as the Tulane transfer sank nine of them from deep in route to a game-high 36 points.
LA Tech was close to overcoming another double-digit deficit, down 65-55 with eight minutes to go. Archibald’s seventh three of the game cut the deficit down to three at 76-73 with 2:31 remaining. That was as close as the Bulldogs would get in the final minutes, missing a trio of free throws while Walker put the game away for the Blazers at the foul line.
