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The Lady Raiders (10-2, 0-0) play the #13/12 Oklahoma State Cowgirls (11-0, 0-0) today at the Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, OK at 7pm CST. The Lady Raiders are coming off a strong win over the University of Houston on Dec 29th. Like the Houston game, Texas Tech and OSU will be meeting for the 50th time. Tech leads the series 30-19.
The Lady Raiders last meeting with the OSU Cowgirls was in Feb 2012. It was a close game and Tech rallied hard but fell short 53-49. Prior to the loss in 2012, Tech had beat OSU three years in a row. Oklahoma State has the country's longest active winning streak at 17. They have won all 11 of their non-conference games and they won their six final post-season games last season. They won the 2012 Women's National Invitational Tournament. The Oklahoma State Cowgirls have not played any ranked teams in their non-conference play and have played mainly junior college teams. It remains to be seen if there record and their stats are as good as they reflect.
The Cowgirls are one of only 4 teams in the country that are undefeated. OSU is currently in first place in the Big 12 standings with Tech in the 5th spot. The Cowgirls are a high scoring team with 7 of 11 of their games earning 90+ points. OSU returns its top five scorers from last season. The Cowgirls lost very little experience from last season since the returning 7 players accumulated 88 percent of the scoring and 77 percent of its rebounding last season. The seven returning players on this year's roster also combined to make 142 of the possible 170 starts. Four of those players played in all 34 games with one other playing in 33 contests.
The Cowgirls are definitely a team to be reckoned with. They are number one in the Big12 in the following stats: Scoring Offense (88.4), Scoring Margin (35.3), Rebounding Defense (31.5), Rebounding Margin (15.5), Assists (21.4) and Turnover Margin (8.6). They are second in Steals (12.9) and FT% (77.3%).
Texas Tech leads the Big 12 Conference in total steals with 155 in 12 games (12.9 per game). The Lady Raiders have held 10 of its 11 opponents under 56 points this season. Texas Tech has held 12 of their opponents to just nine or less field goals in a half this season. Tech has the Big12's second best Scoring Defense (49.8 ppg).
The Lady Raiders have one of the best turnover margin averages in the country at +7.58. The Lady Raiders have forced a Conference-best 271 turnovers through 12 games The Lady Raiders have dominated their opponents by outscoring them an average of 18.5pts per game. They have 3 games in which the FG% was more than 62%. Tech's FT% have been above the 66% mark. Three of the Lady Raiders are averaging in the double figures. Casey Morris leads the pack with an average of 12.3 points/game followed by Christine Hyde at 11.6pts/game and Kelsi Baker at 10.8pts/game. Monique Smalls, Chynna Brown and Jackie Patterson round out the high scorers with an average of 7.9pts, 8.7pts and 7.4pts per game respectively. Coach Kristy Curry is in her 7th season and her current record at Texas Tech is 119-89 and is 7-7 against Oklahoma State.
The Cowgirls' Head Coach, Jim Littell is in his 2nd season with the OSU. His career record is 32-12 He was an assistant coach with the program for 6 years prior to being named the head coach last season. He spent 14 seasons as the HC at Seward County Kansas Community College, compiling a record of 418-61.
The Starting Lineups:
Texas Tech
G Monique Smalls Averages 7.9 Pts and has 29 Steals
G Casey Morris Averages 12.3 Pts and has a 77.4% FT%
G Chynna Brown Averages 8.7 Pts and has 23 Steals
F Christine Hyde Averages 11.6 Pts and 6.3 Rebounds/game
F Kelsi Baker Averages 10.8 Pts and 4.7 Rebounds/game
Oklahoma State
F Liz Donohoe Averages 17.5pts and has a 98.3% FT%
F Toni Young Averages 18.5Pts and 9.5 Rebounds/game
F Lindsey Keller Averages 9.8 Pts and has a 82.8% FT%
G Tiffany Bias Averages 12.6 Pts and 7.4 Rebounds/game
G Brittney Martin Averages 9.2 Pts and 7.0 Rebounds/game
Notes:
Senior Guard Casey Morris needs just 12 points to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career
This game will be the first Big12 game for both of these teams
The Big 12 leads the nation in non-conference win percentage (.804) and fewest losses (90-22).
The Big 12 is No. 1 in conference RPI by both Collegiate Basketball News and Sagarin ratings. Also, the Big 12 is the only conference with every team rated in the top 103 of the CBN RPI.
For the sixth consecutive season, every Big 12 team finished the non-conference with winning records.
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)
Live stats will be available on Gametracker at www. okstate.com/gametracker.
The GameThread will go up at 6:45pm