Louisiana Tech Beats Owls 86-58
12/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2006
Ruston, La. -
Shan Moore scored a game-high 16 points, including 14 in the first half, to lead Louisiana Tech to an 86-58 win over Rice in women's college basketball action Thursday at the Thomas Assembly Center. The Lady Techsters, who had five players score in double figures, improved to 5-7 with the win, while the Owls dropped to 7-4.
An abysmal first half put Rice in the hole from the start, as the Owls turned the ball over 14 times and shot only 37.9 percent from the field. Rice players also picked up 11 fouls in the half, with only six whistled on the home team.
Lauren Neaves opened the scoring for Rice with a jumper at the 16:48 mark before Tech went on a 9-0 run to make it 11-2. A Maudess Fulton bucket brought the Owls within eight at 14-6, but another 9-0 burst gave Louisiana Tech a 23-6 edge with 9:40 to go. The hosts went up 28-10 on a Shan Moore trey, and she canned another from long distance to make it 34-15 with 2:56 on the clock. Kadie Riverin's jumper with 25 seconds left sent the teams into the half with Tech sporting a 39-23 lead.
After letting the Lady Techsters go up by 20 at 50-30 with 15:06 left in the game, Rice went on a 6-0 run, but Louisiana Tech poured in 12 straight points to put the game back out of reach.
Riverin led Rice with 15 points, while Neaves added 13 and Valeriya Berezhynska scored 12 and had a team-high eight rebounds.
Rice did get some good news as Whitney McCauley saw action after missing 40 games stretching back to the beginning of last season due to knee injuries. McCauley entered the game with 11:45 left in the first half and contributed 13 minutes and two steals.
The Owls return to action Dec. 29 in Miami as they take on Kansas State at the Florida International tournament.