TU Women Fall In Overtime

Louisiana Tech held off the Tulsa women 82-75 in overtime on Wednesday night in front of 427 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. Tulsa fell to 4-8 in Conference USA play and 10-13 overall, as the Lady Techsters improved to 8-17 overall and 3-9 in league play, while snapping an 11-game road losing streak.

Tech's Chrisstasia Walter scored a game-high 32 points and added eight rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocked shots, while Whitney Frazier added 23 points and eight rebounds for the Lady Techsters. Tulsa's Ashley Clark led three Tulsa players in double-figures with 21 points, followed by Kelsee Grovey with 12 and Kadan Brady with 11 points.

Tech outscored the Hurricane 15-8 in the overtime period, converting 3-of-4 field goals, including 2-of-3 from three-point range, and netting 7-of-8 free throws. Tulsa made just 4-of-11 field goals in the extra stanza. The Lady Techsters scored the first six points of overtime and after Walters' second three-pointer in OT put the visitors ahead 76-71, Tech converted 6-of-6 free throws to hold off the Hurricane.

Tulsa never led in the game, but tied the contest four times, all coming in the second half.

The Hurricane tied the game for the first time at 34-34 on an Erika Lane free throw at the 19:13 mark of the second half. The Lady Techsters went on a 19-8 run to take an 11-point lead with 13:30 remaining in the final 20 minutes. The Hurricane then scored eight straight points to cut the Tech lead to just three-points at 53-50 with 9:40 left on the game clock.

The Hurricane cut the lead to two points five times, to one twice and tied the game three more times in the final 8:04. Grovey's three pointer knocked a four-point lead to three, 61-60, at the 2:16 mark, then Clark's three-pointer with 1:28 left on the clock knotted the score at 63. Mariah Turner's layup tied the game at 65 and Grovey's running layup in the lane at the 0:10 mark tied it at 67 to force overtime.

Tech improved its second-half shooting, converting on 53-percent of its shots from the field in the final 25 minutes, including the overtime period. For the game, Tech converted 82-percent of its free throws, making 23-of-28, and scoring 17 more from the charity stripe than the Hurricane.

LA Tech jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the contest and after a Clark basket made it 5-2, the Lady Techsters went on a 10-0 run for a 15-2 lead at the 15:15 mark.

Tulsa kept pecking away at the Tech lead and finished out the final 3:25 of the first half on a 9-2 run to bring the Lady Techster lead down to just one point, 32-31, at halftime when Kadan Brady connected on a layup with 0:02 left on the clock.

Aside from Clark's opening two-point basket, it was the Tulsa bench that kept the Hurricane in the game in the first half, scoring the next 13 points. Liesl Spoerl scored five straight points, Antoinet Webster added four, Jasmine Vasquez and Loren McDaniel scored two points apiece.

Tulsa still shot a better percentage than the Lady Techsters in the first half, 36.4 to 33.3 percent. Clark ended the first half with a team-high six points, while Tech was led by Walter's 13 first-half points.

Tulsa will be back at the Reynolds Center this Saturday to host the North Texas Mean Green in a 2:00 p.m. game.