Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications & Staff Reports
Lady Techsters 57, North Texas 44
Keiunna Walker scored 15 points and Louisiana Tech held North Texas in check on its home floor as the Lady Techsters defeated the Mean Green 57-44 at The Super Pit Thursday night.
Walker moved into the Top 10 in the Lady Techster record books in career points during the victory.
Tech (15-10, 8-7) won its third straight game and completed the regular season series sweep against North Texas (9-16, 6-9).
The Lad Techsters used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to break open a close game, build a 23-point third quarter lead, and coast to the win.
Despite shooting just 37 percent from the field, Tech outrebounded North Texas 43-31 and held the Mean Green to a season-low in points.
Mackenzie Wurm added 11 points while Lotte Sant chipped in with 10 points, including connecting on three more three-pointers in the win. Anna Larr Roberson added six points and a game-high 11 rebounds and Walker pulled down nine rebounds — missing a double double by just one board.
The Lady Techsters will travel to face Charlotte Saturday at 1 p.m.
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North Texas 72, Bulldogs 62
Louisiana Tech dropped its third straight game, falling 72-62 to North Texas on Thursday night inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court.
Tech (13-13, 6-9), playing without its leading scorer and all-conference defender Cobe Williams who head coach Talvin Hester announced is no longer on the team due to personal reasons, played toe-to-toe with North Texas (22-5, 13-3) but ultimately fell to the Mean Green.
North Texas scored 48 points in the paint, including 30 in the second half, as Tech wasn’t able to keep the Mean Green away from the rim.
“The game plan was executed, but we were not tough enough at the rim,” said Tech coach Talvin Hester. “We did not create resistance and allowed their players to get to the rim on us. We also had some missed opportunities on offense, missing seven free throws and only converting 13 offensive rebounds into six second chance points. Our issues though came on the defensive end tonight.”
LA Tech (13-13, 6-9 C-USA) did enough offensively, getting a combined 41 points from Keaston Willis, Isaiah Crawford, and Quandre Bullock while knocking down 10 three-pointers as a team against one of the best defenses in the country.
However, the Bulldogs were not able to provide much resistant to North Texas (22-5, 13-3 C-USA) who extended its winning streak to seven by pounding the ball inside where they produced 48 paint points and ultimately shot a highly efficient 61.2 percent from the field.
The Mean Green broke away slightly in the first half after Tylor Perry knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to take a 29-22 edge. But, the Bulldogs stymied their run to make it just a 4-point deficit at halftime at 33-29.
Willis came out on fire to start the second stanza, draining three of his four triples from all over the court in the first seven minutes. The last one knotted things up at 44-44.
UNT answered with an 8-0 run on four consecutive buckets in the paint, but Crawford countered with four straight points to get the Bulldogs back to within four.
LA Tech was still hanging around, down four with 6:48 to go, but they could not get hardly any defensive stop for the remainder of the game as UNT cashed in on its final eight shot attempts.
Willis had a team-high 18 points while Crawford did a little bit of everything with 12 points, five rebounds, six assists, and four steals. Bullock added 11 off the bench.
Abou Ousmane did much of the damage for the Mean Green as the big man notched a double-double with a game-high 20 points and 10 boards.
Tech hosts Charlotte Saturday at 2 p.m.
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