It was Hawai'i's first-ever victory against the Lady Techsters in 15 games since 1980.

First-year Hawai'i head coach Jim Bolla said he received several congratulatory phone calls from the coaching community, and also one from former team trainer Daniel Mar Chong, who now works at Bethune-Cookman College in Florida.

"I'm just happy for the kids," said Bolla, who also recapped the victory on KKEA radio (1420AM) yesterday morning.

Tonight, the seventh-place Rainbow Wahine face another challenge in third-place SMU, a team UH defeated, 70-63, on Jan. 13 in Dallas.

"Even though we're excited about (Thursday's) win, we're still in the bottom half of the WAC," said Hawai'i forward Amy Sanders, who scored a career-high 27 points and swished the game-winning 15-foot shot against Louisiana Tech. "We need to keep it up. We really need to come up in the standings so we have a decent seed in the WAC Tournament."

The Mustangs are coming off a 63-62 overtime loss at San Jose State on Thursday. They are led by freshman post player Janielle Dodds (14.5 ppg, 8.3 rpg).

UH will likely counter with forwards Jade Abele (11.9 ppg, 7.1 rpg) and Sanders (11.4 ppg, 5.5 rpg), center Brittany Grice (5.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg) and guards Macfarlane (7.2 ppg, 2.7 rpg) and Janevia Taylor (11.7 ppg, 6.8 rpg).

"We really need to understand if we come out flat against SMU, having that great game doesn't do us any good," Bolla said.

Bolla guaranteed victory over Louisiana Tech in the preseason. Yesterday, Macfarlane said: "I guarantee this is going to be a good game. So for all those (fans) who don't come out, shame on them."