Lady Raiders battle the Sooners

The Lady Raiders (12-3, 2-1) take on the Oklahoma Sooners (13-2, 3-0) tonight In Norman, OK at the Lloyd Noble Center at 7pm CST. The Lady Raiders beat Kansas State in Lubbock on Wednesday. Jan 11th. The win was the 300^th win for Head Coach Kristy Curry. This game will be the 47^th time Tech and OU have played. The series is in OU's favor at 24-22. The Sooners have had Tech's number in the past few years. Most of the games have been tight but the Lady Raiders have fallen short to OU, losing in the final seconds in many of the games. The Sooners have protected their home court and not allowed Texas Tech to win there in 8 years.

The Lady Raiders rebounded and beat Kansas State in Lubbock on Wednesday night. They came out slow and fell behind by 8pts but they rallied and pulled out the win (59-51). One of the improving trends for this Lady Raiders team is they have finally improved their Free-throws and are averaging 80% completions. But they are falling short on FGs and 3-Ptrs with only 41.8% FG% and 34.2% 3-Pt FG%. Lady Raider's Kelsi Baker and Jackie Patterson will need to be great on the boards and make the points on the inside if Tech is to win this game. Texas Tech needs to break their pattern of coming out slow and not get behind the Sooners. The Sooners have dealt with the same pattern this season and their two losses were in games where they trailed at half-time. The Lady Raiders will have to play a tightly controlled game and play their best defense if they are to knock the Sooners down on their home court. Tech needs to play a fast up-tempo game and focus on their FGsa nd make them count and break up the Sooners 3-pt dominance.

Oklahoma is 3-0 in Big12 play but they have struggled in those games. In two of the games they fell behind in the first half and had to come from behind to pull out the wins. The Sooners fell behind TCU on Wednesday and were losing at the half but they found a way to get the win at the final buzzer. OU closed out the game scoring eight out of the final 10 points to secure the victory.

The Sooners were led on the night by Jumior Guard Aaryn Ellenberg, who scored 26 points. Senior Forward Joanna McFarland added 24 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Guard Morgan Hook added 13 points and Sophomore Guard Sharane Campbell finished the game with 11 points. Oklahoma is a strong 3-Pt shooting team. They currently lead the Big12 stats in completion at the 3-point arc. While OU may have a height advantage on Texas Tech, McFarland is 6' 3", they have been slow on the boards and are on the bottom of the Big12 stats in Rebounds and Steals.

Texas Tech leads the Big 12 Conference in total steals with 185 in 15 games (12.33 per game). Texas Tech moved up a spot and enters this game in the 4th place in the Big12 standings. The Lady Raiders lead the Big 12 and are #10 in the Nation with a +6.87 turnover. The Lady Raiders have dominated their opponents by outscoring them an average of 16.2pts per game. They have 4 games in which the FG% was more than 62%. Tech's FT% is currently 81.3%. Coach Kristy Curry is in her 7th season and her current record at Texas Tech is 121-90 and but is only 1-14 against Oklahoma.

The Sooners' Head Coach, Sherri Coale is in her 17th season with Oklahoma. Her career record is 370-170 and with Oklahoma. During Coale's reign at OU, she has won four Big12 Coach of the Year awards. Sherri Coale and the Sooners lead all coaches and teams in Big12 Conference wins and winning percentage. In the 15 years since the Big12 was formed, the Sooners lead with 168 regular-season wins (.651) in conference play.

The Starting Lineups:

Texas Tech

G Monique Smalls Averages 8.3 Pts and has 32 Steals

G Casey Morris Averages 11.8 Pts and has a 77.8% FT%

G Chynna Brown Averages 9.5 Pts and has 29 Steals

F Christine Hyde Averages 10.4 Pts and 5.6 Rebounds/game

F Kelsi Baker Averages 10.9 Pts and 5.1 Rebounds/game

Oklahoma State

G Aaryn Ellenberg Averages 18.5 Pts and has a 51.7% 3-Pt%

G Morgan Hook Averages 10.9 Pts and has a 76.3% FT%

G Sharane Campbell Averages 8.3 Pts and has a 74.6% FT%

F Joanna McFarland Averages 7.7 Pts and 8.4 Rebounds/game

G Nicole Griffin Averages 11.2 Pts and 4.8 Rebounds/game

Notes:

Texas Tech junior forward Kelsi Baker scored in double digits for the 10^th time in the last 12 games this season and tied her season-high in rebounds with eight on Wednesday vs K-State.

Texas Tech senior guard Casey Morris has played a total of 519 minutes this season - an average of 34.6 per game. That's the most total minutes and average minutes per game in the Big 12 Conference

The Big 12 is No. 1 in conference RPI in both CBN and Sagarin ratings. The first NCAA team RPI was released Jan. 7 with eight Big 12 squads in the top 62.

The Big 12 is one of two leagues (Big Ten) in which every team has a winning record.

Seventy percent of Big 12 squads have reached double-figure wins.

Every Big 12 team will finish the non-conference portion of its season with a winning record for the sixth consecutive season. One non-conference game remains when Baylor travels to Connecticut on Feb. 18.

The Big 12 leads the nation in non-conference win percentage (.804) and fewest losses (90-22).

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The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports Central (FSCEN) and/or FSPAC (listed as FS Oklahoma/FCS Pacific on the Sooner site)

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) and Sooner Radio network

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

Gamethread goes up at 6:45pm