The University of Nevada women’s basketball team fell to Louisiana Tech, 82-56, in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament Wednesday afternoon in Las Cruces, N.M. With the loss, Nevada ends its regular season 18-12 overall.

Nevada opened the game by taking a five-point lead, 8-3, on Brandi Fitzgerald’s layup with 16:14 remaining before La Tech’s JoKerra Sneed tied the game at 8-8 with a three-pointer with 15:27 left in the half.

La Tech went up by three before Fitzgerald hit a pair of free throws with 11:41 left in the half to tie the game at 14-14. La Tech used a 10-0 run to take a 27-17 lead with 6:19 remaining in the half.

The Lady Techsters held the Pack scoreless for over five minutes late in the first half and used a 13-0 run to push its lead to 40-21 with just over a minute remaining in the half.

Nevada, who went in at halftime trailing 42-25, shot 33.3 percent (10-of-30) from the floor in the first half while La Tech shot 59.3 percent (16-of-27). Fitzgerald led Nevada at the half with seven point and seven rebounds.

Nevada opened the second half on a 10-3 run and cut La Tech’s lead to 10 points, 45-35, with 16:52 left in the game before the Lady Techsters pushed their lead back to 18, 56-38 with 13:28 remaining.

Dellena Criner and Johnna Ward hit three pointers on back-to-back-to-back possessions for Nevada to cut La Tech’s lead to nine, 56-47, with 12:10 remaining in the game.

However, La Tech used a 26-11 run over the final 11 minutes of the game to post an 82-56 victory.

Fitzgerald posted her third career double-double scoring 11 points and adding a career-high 12 rebounds. Criner scored a team-high 14 points.

Nevada ended the game shooting 33.3 percent (21-of-63) from the floor while La Tech finished the game shooting 55.2 percent (32-of-58) from the floor.