An all-time Lady Techster, remembered.
Cheryl Miller. Diana Taurasi. Chamique Holdsclaw. Nancy Lieberman. And the great Lady Techster, Janice Braxton.
Hall of Famer and former Louisiana Tech head coach Leon Barmore named his former All-American forward among his list of top-5 women’s basketball players all-time as she approached her 2005 induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Despite her coach’s bias, the case can be made for one of the greatest postseason performers of all time.
Back in the late 1970s, the 6’3 forward — then known as Janice Lawrence — out of Lucedale, Mississippi, played for George County High School.
Entering her junior season, she was named one of the top 15 players in the state, and by its end she was named to the Clarion-Ledger All-State girls basketball team and the Parade Magazine All-American Third Team.
That same year, Sonja Hogg led star freshman center Pam Kelly and sharpshooter Angela Turner took Louisiana Tech to a No. 2 ranking in the final poll and a AIAW Tournament championship game finish, falling to Old Dominion.
The following year, Lawrence closed out a strong high school career with 3,352 points (23.6 per-game) en route to a 115-27 four-year record. In 1980, she was again a member of the All-State girls basketball team and this time earned Parade Magazine All-American First Team honors.
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Meanwhile, back in Ruston, the Lady Techsters finished 40-5, falling to South Carolina in the AIAW Tournament third-place game.
The two stories collided in 1980, when Lawrence immediately became a pivotal contributor for what would become one of the deepest teams in college basketball. Lawrence came in with point guard Kim Mulkey (yes, that Kim Mulkey) and immediately helped take the Lady Techsters to the next level.
Running alongside Kelly and Mulkey, Lawrence put up an impressive 14.9 points per game on 58.9% shooting from the field, pulling down 8.3 rebounds on average over the 34-game season.
Louisiana Tech finished the 1980-1981 season as the top-ranked team for the first time, blazing through Jackson State (97-50), UCLA (87-54), Southern California (66-50), and Tennessee (79-59) to win the AIAW Championship.
The Hogg-led Lady Techsters finished the season undefeated (34-0), rolling right in to the 1981-1982 season.
With a deep roster of contributors like Debra Rodman, Lori Scott, and Debbie Primeaux, Louisiana Tech nearly ran the table again. They rattled off 20 straight wins, bringing their streak up to 54 in a row, before falling by three points to Old Dominion on the road.
Lawrence and crew quickly regrouped, winning the next 15 straight, culminating in double-digit victories over Tennessee (69-46) and Cheyney State (76-62) to win the first women’s NCAA Tournament, the second straight postseason title for the Techsters.
Along the way, Lawrence had another solid season, her numbers dipping due to the depth of the roster. Still, she put up 14.7 points and 7.0 rebounds on average over her 36 games. She led the team in blocks with 1.2 per game, and most importantly led the team in scoring in the tournament, ultimately earning Final Four MVP honors.
She led the team in scoring her junior year, scoring 20.8 points on 59.8% shooting from the field on average, along with grabbing 9.1 rebounds per game. The 1982-1983 season finished again in the NCAA Tournament championship game, where Lawrence and team ran up against Cheryl Miller and Southern California, losing 69-67.
Lawrence also led the team in steals with about 2.4 per game, and her all-around ability earned Kodak All-America honors and a spot on the Final Four All-Tournament team.
The following year was more of the same for the Lady Techsters, led by Lawrence in the frontcourt and Mulkey in the backcourt. Lawrence increased her scoring again, up to 21.3 points on a career-best 61.9% from the field and 71.0% from the free throw line, along with 8.1 rebounds.
Louisiana Tech rolled to a third-straight Final Four, where they again met Southern California. This time, they lost by five, ending Lawrence’s college career with another spot on the Final Four All-Tournament team.
That year, Lawrence was awarded nationally for her individual effort, again as a Kodak All-American, and moreso named WBCA Player of the Year and the 1984 Wade Trophy winner.
Barmore noted at the time that Lawrence’s numbers at Louisiana Tech don’t paint a complete picture of her abilities due to their depth. After she won the Wade Trophy, he was quoted as saying, “For many other teams in the country, she could have averaged over 30 points per game.”
Regardless, her college career is impressive by any standard. Two national championships, four Final Fours (three times on the All-Tournament team), and national player of the year honors don’t come easy. Her career averages of 17.8 points and 8.1 rebounds stand up even today.
Ultimately, Lawrence and her 1984 class finished with a 130-6 record over four years. Lawrence finished with 2,403 points and 1,097 rebounds, joining an elite class of college athletes with over 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
To this day, Lawrence’s name is plastered all over the Louisiana Tech record books, where she is still second in scoring, second in free throws (535), third in scoring average, fourth in blocks (189), fifth in rebounds, and fifth in steals (291).
Her basketball career moved on to stints with Team USA and professional teams overseas.
After helping lead Team USA to gold at the 1983 Pan American Games and 1983 World Championship in Rio de Janeiro, Lawrence continued competing for the National Team in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. With 9.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, she was a key contributor to another gold medal.
In 1987, Lawrence was inducted in to the Louisiana Tech Athletic Hall of Fame, and her No. 51 jersey has also been retired.
Though there was no WNBA at the time Lawrence left Louisiana Tech, she had a lengthy and successful professional playing career.
Though she played in the short-lived Women’s American Basketball Association in 1984, the bulk of her career was spent overseas, playing for Vicenza, Messina, and Parma in the Italian League. She won four European Cups with Vicenza, averaging over 20 points per game and earning All-Europe honors seven times.
The WNBA formed in Lawrence’s mid-30s, and she was sent to Cleveland as part of the initial player allocation, now going by her married name, Janice Braxton. She played a solid three seasons for the Rockers, averaging 9.0 points and 5.8 rebounds per game before ending her playing career.
She returned to the Rockers for the franchise’s final season in 2003 as an assistant coach under Dan Hughes and alongside Cheryl Reeve.
In 2005, Braxton was enshrined in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Barmore called her one of the five best to ever play, and teammate Mulkey said she “was ahead of her time” for her athleticism and ability to run the floor as a post player.
A year later, she was inducted in to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, putting a fitting cap on a tremendous career.
Looking back at her consistent and productive career, the question tends to arise as to how Braxton’s career may have been different in the modern era, with more consistent national coverage and more professional opportunities domestically and overseas. But Braxton summed it up at the time of her induction:
“I can’t complain about a thing,” she told the Associated Press at the time.