February 24, 2007 (USU Media Relations) - LOGAN, Utah - Senior Brittany Phillips scored a team-high 17 points in her final home game in a Utah State uniform and two other Aggies reached double figures, but it wasn't enough to overcome Louisiana Tech as USU dropped a 71-58 decision in women's basketball action here Saturday night.
Phillips scored 13 of her 17 points in the second half, including nine on free throws for USU, which fell to 11-15 overall and 7-7 in WAC play. Louisiana Tech featured four players in double digits, including Shan Moore, who had 17 points as the visitors improved to 16-12 overall and 11-4 in league play.
The Aggies played even with LTU throughout the first part of the first half and in fact were tied at 23 with just under seven minutes to play in the opening period. However, LTU went on an 11-0 run to gain a 34-23 advantage with just under three minutes left and took a 41-28 lead into the lockerroom.
From there the visitors opened up a 16-point lead at 50-34 and then led by as many as 18 at 63-45 with seven minutes left in the game. USU tried to mount a comeback as the Aggies made a quick 9-0 run to cut the margin to 63-54 with 4:24 left.
USU did not have enough left in the tank and the visiting Techsters pushed the margin back up to as many as 15 en route to the victory.
USU's Jenny Gross scored 12 of her 14 points in the first half, while Taylor Richards scored eight of her 10 in the second half. Richards also added a career-high tying eight rebounds, while handing out four assists.
In addition to Phillips, playing in her last home game, it was the final Dee Glen Smith Spectrum appearance for Brittany Hagen and Camille Brox. Brox recorded seven points, three rebounds and two steals, while Hagen made a three-pointer en route to three points and three rebounds.
After shooting nearly 52 percent in the first half, Louisiana Tech cooled down in the second half and made just 37.9 percent of its attempts to finish at 44.8 percent for the game. The Aggies shot 33.3 percent on the night and were just three of 20 from three-point range.
USU battled hard on the board grabbing 18 offensive rebounds in its 34 total, but LTU had 42 boards to offset 20 turnovers in the game.
USU finished its home season with a 7-5 record.
Utah State will conclude the regular season with road games at Nevada on Thursday and Fresno State on Saturday. The Nevada game will tipoff at 8 p.m. mountain time, while the Fresno State game has been moved to 2 p.m. mountain time. Both contests can be seen on WAC.tv or heard on the radio on KLGN, AM 1390 in Logan.