RUSTON -- Louisiana Tech overcame an emotional week that saw the dismissal of their head coach and responded with a 68-56 win over Hawaii Friday night at the Thomas Assembly Center.

Under the direction of interim head coach Teresa Weatherspoon, the Lady Techsters came out and played well before an enthusiastic TAC crowd.

The win wasn't a thing of beauty from start to finish but it was exactly what the proverbial basketball doctor had ordered for a team that had been riding an emotional roller coaster all week.

"I just trusted our ladies to get the job done," Weatherspoon said. "I'm so excited for the game. The crowd tonight really helped us get up. It's good to see the support for our team. The girls handled themselves very well tonight, and I told them how proud I am for the way they conducted themselves."

With the two teams tied at 8-8 at the 14:43 mark of the opening half, Tech (13-11, 6-4 WAC) used back-to-back three-pointers by Tiawana Pringle and Brietta Thomas to trigger a 15-2 run over the next seven minutes and build a 23-10 advantage.

The Lady Techsters used their man-to-man defense, speed and athleticism to force Hawaii into 17 first-half turnovers in building a 31-21 halftime advantage. Johnson scored 10 of her 18 points in the opening half to lead Tech.

"I stressed to our girls to just relax," Weatherspoon said. "We wanted to just worry about us and not so much about the other team tonight. We did a great job tonight of valuing the basketball and created a lot of turnovers. You get excited when the game is played the way it needs to be played when you give all the effort you can."

Tech opened the second half by pushing the advantage out to 15 at 37-22. Hawaii (5-18, 2-8) pulled it under double digits just once in the second half at 37-28 before the Lady Techsters eventually built as much as a 20-point lead before coasting to the win.