Rice at Lady Techsters
Louisiana Tech returns home for a two-game slate beginning this Thursday, Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. to face off against the Rice Owls inside the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, La.
Techsters Fans are encouraged to wear their best red Tech gear Thursday for the annual red out game.
The game can be heard on the LA Tech Sports Network on 97.7 FM and the LA Tech Athletics app and it will also be streamed on ESPN+.
Louisiana Tech (15-10, 7-7) has now won seven of their last ten games after splitting a Texas road pair with a win in El Paso (77-60) over UTEP before falling at UTSA (59-49).
The Techsters are one game behind Southern Miss and North Texas in the conference USA West Division standings with four games left play. Three of those four are at home over the final two weeks of the regular season.
Keiunna Walker poured in a career-high 32 points in the win over UTEP and added 15 points at UTSA to extend her double figures scoring streak to 26 games. Walker is now the only player in C-USA to score in double figures in every game this season.
Rice (10-11, 5-8 C-USA) comes into Ruston riding a three-game win streak and after starting conference play 0-5, are now just 2.5 games out of the West lead.
Rice beat UAB (81-76) and FIU (73-67) at home followed by another win over UAB (60-55) earlier this week on the road in Birmingham. Their last four conference wins have all been decided by six point or less.
Rice won their first C-USA game of the season at home versus the Techsters (72-64) back on Jan. 27.
Louisiana Tech and Rice will meet for the 31st time in women’s basketball with the all-time series even at 15-15 after Rice beat the Techsters earlier this season in Houston.
Tech is 10-3 all time in games played in Ruston but Rice has now won seven straight in the series including the last two in Ruston.
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Bulldogs at Rice
Louisiana Tech heads to Houston on Thursday to take on Rice at 7 p.m. inside Tudor Fieldhouse. With four league games remaining, the Bulldogs are tied for second in the West Division standings.
The contest can be heard on the LA Tech Sports Network on 107.5 FM and via the LA Tech Athletics app. It will also be streamed on Stadium.
LA Tech (19-7, 10-4) led wire-to-wire this past Saturday against UTSA, jumping out to an early 21-3 lead and ultimately winning by a final score of 95-71. The Bulldogs exploded for 53 second-half points, building as much as a 28-point lead to pick up their 10th conference win (eighth time in the last 10 seasons with double-digit league victories. They also dished out a season-high 21 assists.
Keaston Willis went off for a season-high 30 points, going 8-of-12 from beyond the arc. He became just the third Bulldog in program history to make at least eight three-pointers in a single game. He also became the third Bulldog this season to record a 30-point game.
Rice (14-12, 6-8) sits in fifth place in the West Division standings, having lost three in a row to North Texas, UAB and FIU. Most recently, they narrowly fell to the Panthers in Miami by a final score of 80-78.
They continue to be one of the nation’s best three-point shooting teams. They are shooting 38.2 percent from beyond the arc, which ranks first in C-USA and 13th in the country. They average 9.6 made three-pointers per game, second most in the league, and have made 10+ threes in 14 games.
LA Tech is 19-7 all-time versus Rice, having won four straight including an 80-63 win in Ruston about a month ago. Since becoming C-USA opponents, the Bulldogs have won 12 of the 14 matchups. The two losses have been the last two meetings in Houston (2017 and 2019).
