RUSTON—Outscoring Louisiana Tech 42-26 in the second half, the LSU Lady Tigers defeated the Techsters 66-55 Thursday Night in Ruston.

Courtney Jones led LSU (9-3) with a game-high and season-high 20 points to go along with six rebounds. Adrienne Webb added had 12 points. Louisiana Tech (7-8) was led by Angie Felton’s 15 points.  Tavasha Anderson and Whitney Jones each added 10 points apiece for LA Tech.

“First off it is never easy to play at Louisiana Tech,” LSU Head Coach Nikki Caldwell said. “I shared that with my team. Even back when I played in the early 90’s I told them that when you look at this program (Tech) traditionally it is one of the best programs in the country. They have a great coach that definitely had their team ready to play. You have to give our team credit for not folding in the first half and being able to get some good offensive looks thanks to our defensive efforts early on.”

A lackluster first-half offensive effort for LSU saw the Lady Tigers trailing 29-24 heading into the halftime locker-room thanks in large part to shooting only 32.3-percent from the field. However, the Lady Tigers took some momentum at the end of the first half when with .5 seconds left Jeanne Kenney found Theresa Plaisance for a quick catch-and-shot for a much-needed late basket to cut the deficit in the first half to only five.

“I didn’t feel like we were prepared in the first half,” Caldwell said. “I think the team’s focus was not where it needed to be after the Christmas break when you have to come on the road. I thought Tech did a great job of executing their game plan and really disrupting us on the offensive end. They kept making us jump shooting the basketball.

“What we did in the second half was what we should have been doing in the first half and that was establishing our inside game. That allowed us to get better looks at the basket and more importantly easier looks at the basket. I thought our defense also got us some easier baskets which takes a lot of pressure off of your jump shot. We also did a much better job finding Courtney Jones inside and taking advantage of what she could do for us.”

The inside work translated into a much-better shooting effort for LSU in the second half as the Lady Tigers shot an impressive 48.1-percent from the field in the second half, scored 22 points in the paint and behind a 7-0 to start the second half and a 14-3 run midway through the first half, all but put the game out of reach.

The Lady Tigers now are set to start Southeastern Conference play on New Year’s Day as they travel to Oxford to take on Ole Miss for a 2 pm tip-off.