Louisiana Tech Women Win Big One

With dozens of former players and coaches from the tradition-rich school watching in the stands, the pressure was on the Louisiana Tech women.

The Lady Techsters responded by playing their best game of the season.

Tamicha Jackson scored 26 points and led her team’s harassing defense as No. 4-ranked Louisiana Tech beat No. 2 Connecticut, 90-76, Monday at Ruston, La. Amanda Wilson had 17 points and 16 rebounds The victory came as Louisiana Tech was celebrating its 25 years of women’s basketball.

“I don’t think you could have put more pressure on our basketball team than that did,” Coach Leon Barmore said.

Louisiana Tech (14-2) came up with 18 steals and forced 25 Connecticut turnovers--15 in the second half. Svetlana Abrosimova led the Huskies (15-2) with 24 points but committed 10 turnovers.

*

Ukari Figgs and Stephanie White-McCarty each scored 20 points as No. 3 Purdue (14-1, 6-0) recorded a 71-60 victory over Illinois (10-7, 4-3) in a Big Ten game at Champaign, Ill. . . . Coco Miller scored 20 points as No. 5 Georgia (16-1) escaped with an 88-82 victory over the Georgia Tech (9-8) at Marietta, Ga. Georgia Tech, which has lost 21 in a row to Georgia, was within 85-82 with 27 seconds left. . . . Juana Brown scored 10 of the North Carolina’s 12 points in a key second-half spurt as the No. 7 Tar Heels (19-2, 6-1) notched a 79-68 victory over Virginia (11-5, 5-2) in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Charlottesville, Va. Brown had 20 points. . . . Grace Daley scored 25 points, making nine of 10 free throws, in leading Tulane (15-2, 6-1) to a 81-72 Conference USA victory over DePaul (8-9, 3-4) at Chicago.

MEN

Freshman Dahntay Jones scored a season-high 23 points as Rutgers (11-6, 4-4) recorded a 74-71 Big East victory over No. 20 Syracuse (12-5, 4-4) at Piscataway, N.J. The Scarlet Knights made 15 of 18 free throws over the final 5:16. . . . Eric Chenowith had 20 points and 13 rebounds and Jeff Boschee made five of seven three-point shots for 15 points as No. 19 Kansas (13-4, 5-0) was a 76-67 winner over Texas (9-9, 5-1) in a Big 12 game at Lawrence, Kan.