Lady Raiders take on Oregon State

The Lady Raiders (8-2, 0-0) play the Oregon State Beavers (6-5, 0-0) today at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas for the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic at 4:30pm CST. The Lady Raiders lost a tough game yesterday against Michigan State. The game went into Overtime when Monique Smalls hit a 3-ptr with 9 seconds left in regulation play. Tech scored the first 4 points in the OT period but then the MSU Spartans came back with their own 4 points to tie the game again. The Spartans went up by 2 points with just 12 seconds left in OT. The Lady Raiders drove down the court but in an attempt to steal the ball from Tech the ball went out of bounds with only 7/10's of a second left. Jackie Patterson was given the ball on the in-bounds pass but her shot rolled around the rim and fell off the rim. It was a squeaker of a game and hopefully the Lady Raiders learned a lot from being pushed with man-to-man coverage most of the game. Tech was close to taking the lead a number of times in this game but then they would get sloppy in their play. They need to be more consistent and they again need to work on their FT% as it was only 50% in the 1st half of play. They did better in the 2nd half with 64.3% FT%. This was a very low scoring game and both teams struggled to get the balls to drop. Tech finished with only a 29.3% FG% and luckily MSU only had 32.7% FG%. It was a very physical and defensive game and the Lady Raiders need to use this experience to be battle ready for Big 12 play.

Texas Tech and Oregon State are meeting for the 5th time with the last meeting in 2002. Tech won the last time 67-51. Tech leads the series 3-1. The Beavers are one of the best rebounding teams in the country with an average 46.9 rebounds per game. The Oregon State Beavers are extremely strong on defense. They are holding most of their opponents under the 40% FG% from the floor. The Beavers are a young team but had he 17th best recruiting class in the nation. The freshmen are making an impact for this team and are accounting for 47.6% of the scoring.
The Beavers lost to the Spartans on Wednesday Dec 19, 2012 49-35. The game was a defensive battle and the Beavers held the Spartans to their lowest scoring total for the season. The Spartans came out hot and went on a 17-point run. The Beavers fought back and got within 9 but could not break the barrier. The Lady Raiders had been a force to reckon with in their last 7 games. They have dominated their opponents by outscoring them an average of 25.6pts per game. They have 3 games in which the FG% was more than 62%. Tech's FT% have been above the 65% mark. Three of the Lady Raiders are averaging in the double figures. Casey Morris leads the pack with an average of 12.6 points/game followed by Christine Hyde at 12pts/game and Kelsi Baker at 10.9pts/game. Monique Smalls, Chynna Brown and Jackie Patterson round out the high scorers with an average of 8.5pts, 8.3pts and 8.1pts per game respectively. Coach Kristy Curry is in her 7th season and her current record at Texas Tech is 117-89.

The Lady Raiders are playing great Defense. They have a total of 120 Steals this season which is an average of 12 Steals per game. The Lady Raiders are out rebounding their opponents by a +6.4% margin and are averaging 12 Steals per game with a +9.4% turnover margin.

The Beaver's Head Coach, Scott Rueck is in his 3rd season with Oregon State. His career record is 323-127 and is 35-39 in the three seasons at OSU. He was hired at OSU in 2010 and is an alumnus. Rueck has invigorated this squad. He was the Pac-12 Coach of the Year last season. He spent 14 seasons as the HC at George Fox, compiling a record of 288-88 (.766).

The Starting Lineups:

Texas Tech

G Monique Smalls Averages 8.4 Pts and has 25 Steals

G Casey Morris Averages 13.2 Pts and has a 82.1% FT%

G Chynna Brown Averages 8.7 Pts and has 21 Steals

F Christine Hyde Averages 12.3 Pts and 6.4 Rebounds/game

F Kelsi Baker Averages 9.8 Pts and 4.8 Rebounds/game

Oregon State

G Ali Gibson Averages 7.4pts and has 26 Steals

G Jamie Weisner Averages 11 Pts and has a 5.5 Rebounds/game

F/C Patricia Bright Averages 7.5 Pts and has a 4.6 Rebounds/game

F Alyssa Martin Averages 7.9 Pts and has a 79.2% FT%

F Deven Hunter Averages 5.5 Pts and 7.4 Rebounds/game

Notes:
To listen to 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)