RUSTON, La. — 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 yesterday.

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.

No. 1 Tennessee 96, Gonzaga 73: Angie Bjorklund scored 23 points and Candace Parker added 18 as the Lady Vols (9-0) beat the Bulldogs (6-4) in Knoxville, Tenn.

No. 5 Stanford 87, No. 10 Baylor 63: Candice Wiggins scored 21 of her 35 points in the first half, had four steals, three assists and two blocks, and the host Cardinal (8-1) won their fifth straight while dealing the Bears (7-1) their first defeat of the season.

No. 9 Oklahoma 66, No. 21 Michigan State 55: Amanda Thompson had 14 points and 14 rebounds to lead a balanced attack and help the Sooners (7-2) overtake the Spartans (7-3) in East Lansing, Mich. Courtney Paris had 13 points and 14 rebounds to stretch her NCAA-record streak of double-double performances to 68.

No. 19 Ohio State 71, Washington 54: Marscilla Packer scored 14 of her 18 points in the first half as the Buckeyes (7-2) beat the Huskies (4-7) in Seattle.

No. 20 Texas 76, Louisiana-Lafayette 43: Carla Cortijo scored 14 points and distributed seven assists as the Longhorns (8-2) beat the Ragin' Cajuns (3-5) in Austin, Texas.

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