RUSTON, La. — WKU women's basketball fell behind early at Louisiana Tech on Thursday night in Ruston and was unable to complete a comeback, falling 70-65.
"They base it on if we're making shots or not," said head coach Greg Collins. "We've worked all season on trying to be more disciplined and more focused on defense. We still just have these lapses. This was reminiscent of some the early season slow starts. We dug ourselves a big hole and couldn't get back out of it."
Teresa Faustino led WKU in scoring with 16 points, going 3-of-4 from 3-point range. It was the fourth time this season Faustino has led WKU. Alexis Mead filled the stat sheet with 10 points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists. Acacia Hayes and Hope Sivori both added 10 points as well. Karris Allen led the team on the boards, pulling down a career high eight rebounds.
WKU had a cold shooting night, going 31.3 percent from the floor making 21-of-67 shots. The Lady Toppers notched 14 steals on 23 Louisiana Tech turnovers. The WKU bench contributed 33 points, bring the season average for the reserves to 28.9 points per game.
Louisiana Tech started the game on an 11-0 run and made its first four shots from the field. On the other side, WKU missed its first nine attempts from the field. The Lady Toppers' first four points came on free throws. Hope Sivori scored the first field goal of the game for WKU, good for an and-one opportunity with the basket and the foul shot. That cut the lead down to 10, but back-to-back buckets from the Lady Techsters pushed it back out to 14. Teresa Faustino scored five straight points, making a three and a layup. The Lady Toppers went into the second quarter down 23-12.
The Lady Techsters scored the first four points of the second quarter, but WKU responded with an 8-0 run to get within seven. Both teams traded baskets, but a three from Karris Allen and a bucket from Mya Meredith cut the Louisiana Tech lead down to six. The Lady Techsters made a buzzer beater heading into halftime, making the score 35-27.
After a three from Louisiana Tech to start the third quarter, WKU went on a 7-2 run to get back within six with 6:57 left in the period. The Lady Techsters responded with a 12-2 run to build a 16-point lead. Faustino once again went on a personal scoring run, putting up five points in the span of 35 seconds. Both teams scored once more before the end of the quarter, bringing the score to 54-43 going into the final quarter.
Louisiana Tech extended its lead out to 14 at the 8:24 mark of the fourth quarter, but a 5-0 run from WKU cut it to single digits with 7:10 left. The rest of the quarter went back-and-forth with WKU cutting it to as little as seven, but the Lady Techsters going in front as much as 13. The Lady Toppers ended the game on an 8-0 run to bring the score to 70-65.
How to Follow the Lady Toppers: For complete information on Lady Topper Hoops, visit WKUSports.com or follow the program via social media @LadyTopperHoops on Twitter, @LadyTopperHoops on Instagram and on Facebook at facebook.com/WKUWomensBasketball.
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