Lady Raiders take on the Bison

The Lady Raiders (1-1, 0-0) take on the Lipscomb Bison (0-2, 0-0) today at the USA at 2pm. The Lady Raiders are coming home after playing two road games that they split. They beat Arizona State but then lost to New Mexico. The latter game had a lack of energy and focus from most of the Texas Tech players. The game was kept close by the efforts of Monique "Mo" Smalls, who scored 22 points and Amber Battle, who scored 12 points.

Texas Tech and Lipscomb have never played and this will be there first meeting. The Bison are strong from the 3-Pt line and will be playing determined to try and get their first win the season. In Lipscomb's game with # 16 Vanderbilt last Monday, they cut a 20-point deficit to just six points, two different times, but could not capitalize on the comeback opportunity, falling 62-45.

The Lady Raiders have come out slow in their last 2 games. They were able to battle back against Arizona State and pull out a win but they were not able to do that with New Mexico. Texas Tech needs to come out playing fast and focused and control the tempo of the game. This has to be a team effort and the players that struggled against the Lobos need to step it up. The main improvements for this team needs to be in rebounding and 3-Pt shooting accuracy. If the Lady Raiders can control the boards and set the tempo then they win this game hands down.

The Bison's Head Coach, Greg Brown, begins his 1^st season with Lipscomb. He was an Assistant Coach under the Hall of Fame Coach Pat Summitt and then was hired as an Assistant for the University of Central Florida for 3 years. He helped lead the UCF Knights to two Conference USA championships in 2009 and 2011, resulting in two NCAA berths. He was chosen as the new head coach of Lipscomb last spring and he is proud to coach at his alma mater.

The Bison average 58 points per game and do not have strong rebounding skills but they average seven 3-Ptrs/game and average 7 Steals per game. The other advantage the Bison have is the ability to regroup and battle back from deficits as they showed in their game against Vanderbilt. Overall, this team is a strong 2^nd half team.

The Starting Lineups:

Texas Tech

• G Monique Smalls Averages 14 pts and averages 4 Steals per game
• G Amber Battle Averages 6 pts and averages 3 Steals per game
• G Mary Bokenkamp Averages 14 pts and averages 3 Steals per game
• F Christine Hyde Averages 10 pts and averages 6.5 Rebounds per game
• F Kelsi Baker Averages 7.5 pts and averages 4 Rebounds per game

Lipscomb

• G Kelli Smith Averages 3.5 pts and averages 99% FT Shooter
• G Presley Stastny Averages 4.5 pts and averages 3 Steals per game
• G Hannah Phillips Averages 18 pts and averages 7.5 Rebounds per game
• F Alex Banks Averages 3.0 pts and averages 3 Rebounds per game
• F Chelsea McMeans Averages 3.5 pts and averages 90% FT Shooter

Notes:

To view the game go to TexastechTV (http://www.texastech.com/allaccess/)

The game can be heard on the radio 93.7 FM (Lubbock and on the Texas Tech Sports Network (www.TexasTech.com)

Live stats will be available on Gametracker at www.texastech.com/gametracker.

This will also be the GameThread (I will not be able to monitor the game but let's cheer the Ladies on to victory)