No. 8 LSU 76, Louisiana Tech 45

12/16/2007 6:09 PM

RUSTON, La. (AP) -If LSU coach Van Chancellor had any concerns about the Lady Tigers' two-week layoff, Sylvia Fowles and her teammates quickly put them to rest.

Fowles had 16 points and eight rebounds to help No. 8 LSU cruise to a 76-45 victory over Louisiana Tech on Sunday.

The Lady Tigers (7-2) were never seriously threatened, taking a 40-22 halftime lead. The Lady Techsters (4-6) made only a third of their first-half shots, a tally that dropped to 21.2 percent in the second half.

``I didn't think it was going to be that big of a deal, us being off that long, because we have the kind of talent and motivation to where we are ready to play at any time,'' Fowles said.

After the Lady Tigers missed five straight shots, Louisiana Tech cut the lead to three with 12 minutes left in the first half, but missed 14 of its next 17 shots as LSU put together a 14-2 run in the final 7 minutes of the half.

Rashonta LeBlanc, Marian Whitfield and Ashley Thomas each had 10 points for LSU.

``Overall, that's the best we've played this year,'' Chancellor said. ``I was extremely pleased with our play on both ends of the court. Offensively and defensively, we played just about as well as one can play. You wouldn't have thought we had not played a game in two weeks. And we didn't even practice on Friday or Saturday.''

With her eight rebounds, Fowles moved ahead of Tennessee's Chamique Holdsclaw into fifth place on the Southeastern Conference's career list with 1,296.

Tiawana Pringle scored 12 points, and JoKairra Sneed and Shanvania Dowdell each had 10 for Louisiana Tech. Dowdell also had 10 rebounds.

``Considering we played one of the best teams in the country, one that has the potential to contend for the Final Four, I thought we played pretty well,'' Louisiana Tech coach Chris Long said.

It was the fourth straight loss for Louisiana Tech.