Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
Louisiana Tech held an 11-point lead at halftime, but would go cold in the second half and fell to Liberty 66-59 on Saturday afternoon inside Liberty Arena.
“We didn’t disrupt enough defensively today,” said LA Tech head coach Brooke Stoehr. “Liberty runs some good actions and if you let them get to their spots and don’t disrupt their timing then they will make you pay. We didn’t make things difficult enough for them, especially in the second half.”
Louisiana Tech (7-11, 1-2 CUSA) got an early lead at 4-2 but quickly went cold. The Lady Techsters would go 0-3 from the field and have two turnovers over the next three and a half minutes. Liberty (6-12, 1-2) took advantage and went on a six-point run to gain the lead at 8-4.
That would be the final points of the quarter for the Lady Flames as the Lady Techster defense stepped up and forced Liberty into three turnovers and 0-4 from the field over the final six minutes of the opening stanza. Six Tech players would contribute during a 14-0 run to give Tech the lead 18-8 after the first stanza.
The offenses started to heat up in the second, and the teams would trade buckets for most of the quarter. Tech went into the locker room up 39-28.
Liberty came out of the half on a 10-0, forcing Tech to call a timeout with the lead at one. Out of the timeout, Anja Bukvic and Paris Guillory made back-to-back baskets to push the lead back to six, but Liberty would cut it down to two after the third.
The Lady Flames opened the fourth on another 9-0 run and gained the lead at 56-49, their first lead since the score was 8-2. The first points for the Lady Techsters would come at the 5:31 mark on a pair of free throws by Jianna Morris. Salma Bates would make two three-pointers in the game’s final minute, but Liberty would knock down free throws to stop Tech’s attempt to come back.
“Our energy was solid in the first half, and I thought we moved the ball well and got some really good attacks at the rim and kickouts for open shots,” said Stoehr. “We looked lethargic and lacked energy coming out of the break. We turned the ball over 11 times in the second half after only four in the first. That was a big difference for us, we scored 20 points in the second half as a result.”
Bates and Morris had 13 points and three rebounds each to lead the Lady Techsters. Bates also contributed three assists. Bukvic was the only other Tech player in double figures with 11, adding three boards and two assists.
Liberty shot 25-48 from the field as a team and had three players in double figures. Emma Hess had 14 points to lead the way, while Bella Smuda finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds. Asia Boone contributed 12 points on 4-9 shooting.
“Road wins are hard to come by. It’s about toughness and digging a little deeper to find a way to get a deflection, stop, rebound, or get yourself to the free throw line. We were not the tougher team today, and I’m not okay with that.”
