RUSTON, La._A hot shooting hand and the hometown crowd helped propel
sixth-ranked Louisiana Tech to a 80-59 win against TCU Monday in the
second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Playing before a crowd of 6,813, most of them hometown fans, at Thomas
Assembly Center, the Lady Techsters opened up an 11-point halftime lead
behind the efforts of junior center Takeisha Lewis, who scored 13 points, and the Frogs were never able to cut the deficit to less than nine.

"Louisiana Tech was really good," Frogs head coach Jeff Mittie said.
"We didn't have answers for Lewis and (Ayana) Walker (nine points) in
the first half. We couldn't get a good enough push."

Walker scored a game-high 17 points for the Lady Techsters. The win
elevates Louisiana Tech to 30-4 and marks the first time an NCAA women's
basketball team has reached the 30-win plateau six seasons in a row.

Tough defense by the Lady Techsters, who won NCAA championships in 1982 and 1988 and have gone to the Final Four 10 times, kept the Frogs, who thrived on three-point shooting during the season, from finding the range. TCU could manage only two three-pointers each half and hit only 4-of-23 (17.4 percent) for the game.

The Frogs crept within nine points, at 43-34, with 17:19 remaining but
could get no closer.

"They did a great job on defense," senior guard Jill Sutton said. "They
were aware of our three-point shooting, and they were able to stop it."

Mitte said the home court advantage was also a pivotal factor in the
game.

"We lost our discipline defensively and offensively," he said. "When the crowd was louder, we played faster, and we took ill-advised shots."

For the Frogs (25-8), who made the second round by upsetting Penn State, 77-75, Saturday, their season ends with a string of firsts: most wins in a season, first NCAA Tournament appearance, and the Western Athletic Conference season and tournament championships. Next season, TCU joins Conference USA. Louisiana Tech leaves the Sun Belt Conference to join the WAC.

For Sutton, her efforts Monday fell just short of rewriting the TCU record books. Her 12 points lifted her career total to 1,300, three points shy of setting the all-time record. Junior forward Tricia Payne's 13 points led the Frogs.

The second-round loss marked the final games for Sutton, her twin sister and guard Amy Porter, forward Janice Thomas, center Karen Clayton and guard Sally Spencer.