Lady Techsters 90, Rice 80 (2OT)
Anna Larr Roberson scored 44 points and Kieunna Walker recorded only the fourth triple double in program history to lead the Lady Techsters to a 90-80 double overtime win on Thursday.
Roberson, whose previous career-high was 22 points, hit 20-of-26 field goal attempts and 4-of-5 free throws as the 44 points are the fifth most in a single game in program history. She added nine rebounds.
Her 44 points is the fifth most points ever scored in a single game for the Techsters and her 20 made field goals is tied for the most in program history with Belinda Jones who did it back in 1975-75.
Walker was everywhere, scoring 27 points, grabbing a career-high 15 rebounds and recording a career-high 10 assists to record the first triple double since Tasha Williams accomplished the feat in 2006.
Walker’s 27 points also moved her past both Erica Smith-Taylor and Tasha Williams to place her No. 31 on the all-time scoring list with 1,261 points.
In a game that sat at just 3-2 five minutes into the contest, there could not have been much chance the fans inside the TAC expected to see the wild, crazy, and historic finish that ended with 170 points on 147 shots and saw 92 rebounds combined between the two teams.
Both teams slowly began to heat up over the course of the second and third quarters as Tech worked to build their largest lead of the game with 5:49 left to play in the third quarter (44-34).
Rice’s Ashlee Austin then caught fire scoring 14 straight points of her team-high 27 to close the gap to just three entering the fourth (54-51).
With Tech clinging to that three-point lead later in the fourth, the Owls went on a 9-0 run over a minute-and-a-half to take a 58-52 lead with just three minutes remaining, but eight points from Roberson, including the game-tying basket with 42 seconds remaining, would help send the game into overtime.
In the first extra period, teams traded the lead five times including Tech taking a 78-76 lead off two Walker free-throws. With just 10 seconds remaining, Rice had an inbounds opportunity near their bench when Roberson was called for a delay of game technical foul that gave the Owls two free-throws and the ball.
Austin connected on both attempts, but Rice was unable to score on the next possession which sent the game into a second overtime.
Rice would regain the lead one more time off two more free-throws to start the period, but the combination of Roberson and Walker would score the final 12 points of the game. The clutch baskets mixed with timely defensive stops sealed the 90-80 double OT victory and move the Techsters only a half-game back of the division lead behind Southern Miss and North Texas.
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Bulldogs 83, Rice 79
Louisiana Tech picked up its 20th victory of the season and remained tied for second in the West Division standings after defeating Rice, 83-79, on Thursday night inside Tudor Fieldhouse.
“Winning 20 games is one of the goals,” said Konkol. “We feel like we have much bigger ones that we are trying to accomplish. We have talked about a standard of excellence and the team knows what that means. To win 20 games in college basketball is a great accomplishment and I am proud of the team.”
LA Tech (20-7, 11-4 C-USA) led for almost 37 minutes of the game, but was never able to pull away from one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country in Rice (14-13, 6-9 C-USA) who connected on 11 triples.
“We knew we were going to play a really good Rice team on its home floor,” said Konkol. “They have had some big wins at home. I thought we gave great effort and contested a number of shots. We had a total team effort with five guys in double figures. I thought our bench was really good. We knew we were going to have to score it to come away with a very good win.”
The Bulldogs grabbed their largest lead of the game on the opening possession of the second half when Keaston Willis drained the team’s first three-pointer of the contest to make it 37-27.
The Owls stayed within striking distance though, slicing the deficit down to two at 50-48 after Travis Evee’s fifth three-pointer of the game with 12:48 to go.
Kenneth Lofton, Jr. started to take over in response, scoring or assisting on six of the ‘Dogs next eight possessions, including dishes to Cobe Williams, David Green and Amorie Archibald who each buried three-pointers of their own.
Rice refused to go away, getting to within four at 70-66 to force a timeout by head coach Eric Konkol with 3:06 left. After the teams traded turnovers, LA Tech got a big triple from the wing by Willis to push the lead back out to seven with less than two minutes to play.
From then on, the Bulldogs made 10 of their last 12 free throw attempts and got one key defensive stop at the end of the game to prevail. After holding a low-scoring first half with the ‘Dogs holding a 34-27 lead, they ended up scoring 49 second-half points and needing all of them to win for the first time in Houston since 2016.
LA Tech had five players score in double figures – Lofton, Jr. (16), Archibald (14), Green (12), Williams (12) and Willis (11).
The Bulldogs face C-USA leader North Texas Saturday in Denton. Tipoff is at 3 p.m.
