The #25 Lady Raiders play the #18 Texas A&M Aggies in
Tech enters the game after beating the Texas Longhorns in a game that had energy and enthusiasm. Tech did not have Forward Kierra Mallard for the 2nd game in a row due to an injury. The ATM Aggies are coming off a very tight game over
What's at Stake: Tech will be looking for their 16th win and their 4th conference win and hope to climb back up the rankings with continued wins. This will be the last meeting between these two teams in
Comments: The Lady Raiders showed heart and enthusiasm in their last game and they pulled out the win over
More after the Jump ...
Current Record: Tech's current season record is 15-5, 3-5 Big 12. ATM’s current season record is 14-5, 5-3 Big12.
Rankings: The Lady Raiders are ranked # 25 in this week's Associated Press poll but dropped out of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll. ATM is currently # 18 in the AP poll and #16 in the Coach’s Poll.
Players to Watch:
Tech: Senior Forward Kierra Mallard is averaging 13.1 pnts and 8.8 rebounds/game and has 44 blocks and 28 steals; Junior Guard Casey Morris averages 9.2 points per game and 3.7 rebounds/game and has 44 steals and has a 84.2 FT%; Junior Christine Hyde is averaging 9.0 points and 4.2 rebounds/game and has 22 steals; Junior Guard Monique Smalls is averaging 8.6 points and 3.4 rebounds and has 63 steals; Sophomore Kelsi Baker averages 7.2 points and 4.4 rebounds/game and has 8 blocks and 14 steals; Sophomore Forward Shauntal Nobles is averaging 6.4 pts and 5.3 rebounds/game and has 19 blocks and 17 steals. Junior Guard Chynna Brown is averaging 7.9 pts and 3.9 rebounds/game and has 17 steals; Senior Forward Jordan Barncastle averages 4.9 pts/game and completes 75% FTs and has 9 steals.
Texas A&M: Freshman Guard Alexia Standish is averaging 3.6pts per game and has 11 steals; Senior Guard Sydney Carter averages 11.6 pts and 3.2 rebounds/game and has 38 steals and has a 85.7% FT%; Senior Guard Tyra White averages 14.4 pts and 5.6 rebounds/game and has 11 blocks and 21 steals; Senior Forward Adaora Elonu averages 12.3 pts and 7.1 rebounds/game and has 20 blocks and 35 steals; Junior Center Kelsey Bone is averaging 11.8 pts and 6.9 rebounds/game and has 13 blocks and 23 steals.
Previously Play: The Lady Red Raiders played the Texas Longhorns in
Coaches: Kristy Curry is coaching her 6th season at Tech. (103-78). Gary Blair is entering his 9th season with the Texas A&M Aggies (202-84).
Last Year: The Lady Red Raiders finished the 2010-11 season 22-11, 8-8 with a tie for 6th place in the Big12. Tech returns 11 players (4 Starters) from last year's team and welcomed 2 newcomers. The ATM Aggies won the National Championship last year. ATM finished the 2010-11 season 33-5, 13-3 and finished in 2nd place in the Big12. The Aggies returned 10 Letterwinners (3 Starters) and have 3 newcomers.
Radio:
Gametracker: www.texastech.com/gametracker
Streaming Video: www.texastech.com/allaccess/ (~ $10/month charge) and ESPN3
Game Thread will go up at 6:45pm CST on Wednesday , Feb 1, 2012.
Other Notes and Quotes
Texas Tech leads the Big 12 Conference and is No. 13 nationally with 12.7 steals per game this season.
Texas Tech is second in the Big 12 Conference in scoring margin (16.1) and 19th overall in the country. The Lady Raiders are also fourth in conference in scoring with 73.2 points per game - 27th nationally.
The Lady Raiders are second the Big 12 Conference in offensive rebounds with 17.5 per game and are third in the conference in rebounding offense (43.9%) and fifth in rebounding defense (35.4%). They are also second in the conference in rebounding margin (+8.4) which is also 18th-best among all NCAA Div. 1 teams.
Big 12 teams will hit the midway point of the 18-game conference schedule with midweek games.
The Big 12 is the lone league in which every team continues to have an overall winning record, although eight games into conference play.
The Big 12 claims the best win percentage (.676) of the six BCS leagues in competition against each other. The Big 12 is the only of the six that is .500 or better against the other five.
The Big 12 is listed first in the Sagarin and Women's RPI ratings and is the only conference with every team in the top 76 of the NCAA RPI.
Texas Tech Head Coach Kristy Curry
Opening Statement
"You know a lot of people want to ride in the limo, but what you want is someone when the limo breaks down to ride in the bus with you. We had 10,000 people riding the bus with us. I cannot thank the students the High Riders and that crowd today for sticking by us they were the difference down the stretch and gave us a lot of confidence, and I feel like I’m always thanking them but we had a little car trouble but we are getting it back and I just want to thank everybody for getting on the bus with us lately and we are going to stick together. It’s like I told them we’ve had to have short term memory here lately and we’ve got to have short term memory and enjoy this until midnight and take a day off tomorrow and come back and get ready for Wednesday night, so that’s all I have to say."
On what was the change for Tech this game:
"You know I think it has to do with this one right here on the left of me (Jordan Barncastle) when I woke up yesterday morning I had trouble sleeping and had to start her because I felt like she could give us that confidence that calmness we need. Kelsi (Baker) hadn’t done anything wrong and I think a lot of it had to do with Barncastle’s leadership today, she was tremendous."
On if this was Jordan Barncastle’s best game:
"Oh, it’s hard because she’s done so much everyday that’s hard for me to think about that’s anything but good. I’m really proud for her and the team and again, it’s short term memory and she was just really aggressive for her to do what she did on the boards which I’m always on her about says a whole bunch, so great effort today."
On losing their lead 15-point lead:
"Wel we knew they were going to make a run because we know how good they are, so we just have to stay together and that’s the way the Big 12 is. Just take it in four-minute segments, win every four-minute segment and stay together and stay strong. I thought we executed at critical times today and maybe in the past our decision making where we haven’t. A couple of examples that caused that were maybe we ran too much when we wanted to pull it back or there was a time late in the game where we should have pulled it out and the whole bench is screaming pull it out pull it out, but I thought we made better decisions at critical times today not enough where we can always learn from but more so than we have."
On if this was the most consistent second half they’ve had so far:
"I think it was the most consistent game, definitely the second half as far as our execution and we tried to get everybody involved early in both halves and if you go back and watch we did that, we might of missed a shot but we got a move and think we can score and I thought that really helped our team today. We were looking a little lost without our leading scorer and rebounder (Kierra Mallard) and waiting like where’s she at the other night and where’s she at in practice and again they are all here because they are talented offensively and I felt like we needed, as a staff, to get them more involved and like I said we might have missed some shots when we were trying to get the first four folks involved and the first four folks in the second half and I thought that really helped our confidence, for us to know we were looking to get great balance today."
Monique Smalls
On perimeter defense:
"The goal was to just put pressure on the guard to help my other teammates get in the passing lanes like they need to. With defense we are very good, and getting in the passing lanes we need to do it every game, every time."
Jordan Barncastle
On beating
"I think it is really cool to go into these next couple games with this momentum, and kind of get in the swing of things again. It was nice to do something we haven’t done in a while. I haven’t won here against them and hopefully we’ll go there and win again."
On starting:
"She’s (Coach Curry) been saying about how we need balance and that everyone needs to be aggressive and everybody has the green light. All those things, and how much confidence everybody has in each one of us. I think that I was trying to be a little bit more aggressive offensively and defensively. With great energy I think that a lot of things fall into place."
On breaking losing streak:
"It was a tough win, a tough loss for them a tough win for us. I think it will prepare us for Wednesday and we are just looking ahead, taking it one game at a time. I definitely think that this gives us momentum and positive encouragement that we needed."
TEXAS TECH LADY RAIDERS
| TEXAS TECH LADY RAIDERS (15-5, 3-5) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAME | NO. | HT | P | YR | STATS |
| Monique Smalls | 23 | 5-6 | G | JR | 8.3 pts/game |
| Casey Morris | 15 | 5-9 | G | JR | 9.7 pts/game |
| Christine Hyde | 5 | 5-10 | G | JR | 8.8 pts/game |
| Kelsi Baker | 41 | 6-0 | F | SO | 7.6 pts/game |
| Kierra Mallard | 20 | 6-3 | F | SR | 13.1 pts/game |
TEXAS A&M AGGIES
| TEXAS A&M AGGIES (14-5, 5-3) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAME | NO. | HT | P | YR | STATS |
| Alexia Standish | 10 | 5-8 | G | FR | 3.6 pts/game |
| Sydney Carter | 4 | 5-6 | G | SR | 11.6 pts/game |
| Tyra White | 20 | 6-0 | G | SR | 14.4 pts/game |
| Adaora Elonu | 21 | 6-1 | F | SR | 12.3 pts/game |
| Kelsey Bone | 3 | 6-4 | C | JR | 11.8 pts/game |
Four Factors to Winning
| The Four Factors to Winning | ATM | Texas Tech |
|---|---|---|
| Shooting eFG% | 0.383 | 0.355 |
| Ball Handling TO% | 0.369 | 0.392 |
| Off rebounding OR% | 0.447 | 0.424 |
| Shooting FTs FT Rate | 0.663 | 0.662 |
TEAM STATISTICS
| Team Stats | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Scoring Offense | W-L | Pts | Avg/G |
| Texas Tech | 15-5, 3-5 | 1435 | 71.8 |
| ATM | 14-5, 5-3 | 1340 | 70.5 |
| Scoring Defense | W-L | Pts | Avg/G |
| Texas Tech | 15-5, 3-5 | 1161 | 58 |
| ATM | 14-5, 5-3 | 1136 | 59.8 |
| Scoring Margin | Off | Def | Margin |
| Texas Tech | 71.8 | 58 | +13.7 |
| ATM | 70.5 | 59.8 | +10.7 |
| Free Throw % | FT Made | FT Attempts | Pct. |
| Texas Tech | 302 | 456 | 0.662 |
| ATM | 254 | 383 | 0.663 |
| Field Goal % | FG | FG A | Pct. |
| Texas Tech | 512 | 1262 | 0.406 |
| ATM | 516 | 1220 | 0.423 |
| Field Goal % Defense | FG | FGA | Pct. |
| Texas Tech | 412 | 1120 | 0.368 |
| ATM | 412 | 998 | 0.412 |
| 3-Point FG % | FG | FGA | Pct. |
| Texas Tech | 109 | 334 | 0.326 |
| ATM | 54 | 196 | 0.276 |
| 3-Point FG % Defense | FG | FGA | Pct. |
| Texas Tech | 82 | 297 | 0.276 |
| ATM | 97 | 266 | 0.365 |
| Rebounding Offense | Reb | Avg/G | |
| Texas Tech | 874 | 43.7 | |
| ATM | 773 | 40.7 | |
| Rebounding Defense | Reb | Avg/G | |
| Texas Tech | 706 | 35.3 | |
| ATM | 634 | 33.4 | |
| Blocked Shots | Blocks | Avg/G | |
| Texas Tech | 93 | 4.65 | |
| ATM | 90 | 4.74 | |
| Assists | No. | Avg/G | |
| Texas Tech | 290 | 14.5 | |
| ATM | 299 | 15.74 | |
| Steals | No. | Avg/G | |
| Texas Tech | 238 | 11.9 | |
| ATM | 199 | 10.47 |
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