RUSTON, La. -- Pat Summitt knew it wouldn't be easy to beat Louisiana Tech on the road, and the Tennessee coach was right.
The Lady Techsters put up a solid effort, but the ninth-ranked Lady Vols came through with a 70-59 victory on Wednesday night. And it may have taken a technical foul against Summitt to get her team in gear.
With about five minutes to go in the first half, Summitt drew a technical after Louisiana Tech went ahead 23-22 on a 3-point basket by Aarica Ray-Boyd.
``But I think that wound up firing us up a little,'' Summitt said. ``After that, I told our team, 'now let's start playing and get to winning this game.''
Alexis Hornbuckle led Tennessee with 17 points as Tennessee handed Louisiana Tech consecutive losses at home for the first time in 14 seasons. In their last home game, Tech was beaten by Illinois.
Hornbuckle made 7 of 12 shots and had five steals for the Lady Vols (6-2). She also hit a 10-foot jumper and followed with a free throw at 5:25 to play after Tech (4-3) got within 57-52 on a 3-pointer by Lakiste Barkus.
Tennessee, which got 15 points from Shanna Zolman, them moved ahead by eight points and were never in trouble.
``After that, they kept taking advantage of the mistakes we were making, plus the fatigue that might have set in with us,'' Tech coach Kurt Budke said. ``Tennessee is the type of team where you can't make many mistakes because they're going to take advantage of them. But overall, I was very proud of the effort and performance we gave. I think we took a big step forward tonight, even though we lost.''
Tasha Crain led Louisiana Tech with 17 points and seven rebounds, Shan Moore added 14 points and Barkus 12.
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