RUSTON, La. - The University of Denver women's basketball team was defeated 69-51 by Louisiana Tech to close out its regular season Saturday evening at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, La. The loss drops DU to 13-16 on the season, and 8-10 in Western Athletic Conference play, while the Lady Techsters move to 13-16, 9-9 in WAC action. The Pioneers will take the seventh seed into the WAC Tournament, and will open against 10th-seeded Texas State on Tuesday.

Sophomore Morgan Van Riper-Rose (Eden Prairie, Minn.) led the Pioneers with 10 points.

Whitney Frazier paced all scorers with 15 points on the evening.

The Lady Techsters shot 56.5 percent (26-of-46) in the game, while DU shot 42.6 percent (20-of-47), including 15.4 percent (2-of-13) from three-point range. Denver never held a lead in the contest.

"You have to give Louisiana Tech a lot of credit," said head coach Kerry Cremeans. "They're an excellent team at home and they're really aggressive defensively. They were very physical in the first half and I think it rattled us a bit. I'm proud of our effort in the second half. We showed a lot of fight and toughness that I wish we would have had in the first 20 minutes. Now we're looking forward to the WAC Tournament, and playing to the best of our ability there."

Brittany Lewis and Lulu Perry finished with 12 points apiece. Perry recorded a game-high six rebounds, while Janay Borum tallied six assists.

Juniors Desiree Hunter (Cypress, Calif.) and Maiya Michel (Loma Linda, Calif.), and freshman Paige Bradley (The Woodlands, Texas) tallied seven points each. Michel and Hunter added five rebounds apiece.

The Lady Techsters rode a 10-2 run out to a 24-11 advantage with seven minutes left in the first half. Louisiana Tech stretched the lead to 18 at 33-15 with two minutes remaining in the frame. The Pioneers cut the edge to 35-21 late in the half, but Jelena Vucinic hit a three to close out the period and the Lady Techsters carried a 38-21 lead into the intermission.

DU turned the ball over 15 times in the first stanza, while the Lady Techsters shot 15-of-25 (60 percent) from the field. Michel led DU with seven first-half points on 3-of-3 shooting. Lewis paced all scorers with eight points.

Louisiana Tech opened the second half with an 8-0 run, as it jumped out to a 46-21 lead. The Pioneers responded with a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 48-30 with 14 minutes left. The Pioneers cut the lead to 17 at 50-33 with 11:44 left in the game, but were unable to come any closer, as Louisiana Tech took the 18-point victory.

The Pioneers' matchup with Texas State will be held at 1 p.m. MT on Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nev.

Visit DenverPioneers.com for complete coverage of all 17 of DU's NCAA Division I sports.

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