Lady Raiders take on the FAU Owls

Go Lady Raiders!!!

RAIDER !!!! POWER !!!!

Game: Lady Raiders vs. Florida Atlantic Owls

Date: Saturday, December 21, 2013

Time: 2:00pm CST

Location: "The USA" Lubbock, TX

Radio: Texas Tech Sports Network (97.3 FM Lubbock)

Gametracker: www.texastech.com/gametracker

Streaming video: www.texastech.com/allaccess

Listen: www.texastech.com/allaccess

The Lady Raiders (5-4, 0-0) take on the Florida Atlantic Owls (7-2, 0-0) today in the United Spirit Arena. The game will be played at 2pm CT. This game will be the first time this two teams have played.

The Lady Owls are coming off a win yesterday over Abilene Christian (7-5) in the World Vision Challenge Women's Basketball Tournament. The FAU team is a very strong defensive team that has pulled out most of their wins this season by 4 points or less. The Owls are led by Senior Forward Chenise Miller, who was chosen as the C-USA Player-of-the-Week two weeks ago. Miller averages 13.6 ppg and 7.7 rpg. Senior Guard Takia Brooks averages 11.9 ppg and is over 87% accurate from the free-throw line and was last weeks C-USA Player-of-the-Week. After she scored 18 points and had 7 rebounds and hit 8 of 9 of her FT shots to help FAU beat their in-state rival's Central Florida 82-69 in double-overtime. Senior Guard Kimberly Smith averages 10 ppg, is over 82% FT shooter and has 19 Steals so far this season. The Owls are ranked number one in Turnover Margin with a +12.5, they are 7^th in the nation on Steals averaging 13 per game and they have a current ranking of 14 in Scoring Offense averaging 85 points.

The Lady Raiders returned to their home-court last night after coming up short to the Arizona Wildcats last Sunday (65-56). Texas Tech defeated the Jacksonville University Dolphins 62-48. Both teams came out slow and could not get their shots to drop. But then the Lady Raiders warmed up and never looked back. Amber Battle scored 16 points and Minta Spears added another 13 points. Nine of Spears points were from sinking three 3-ptrs. It was a very good defensive show for this young Lady Raiders team. They held the Dolphins to just 27.6 points from the field and had 32 defensive rebounds. The rebounding improvement can mainly be attributed to Audrisa Harrison with 11 rebounds.

If the Lady Raiders are to beat Florida Atlantic today they have to come out fast and make sure every shot counts. They need to continue to be strong at the free-throw line but they need to continue to improve on their 3-point shots and be more aggressive on the boards and pull down more of the rebounds. Tech needs to protect the ball and when they get a clean look they need to take the shot. They will have their hands full playing this very athletic and experienced FAU Owl's team. I am hoping the Lady Raiders pull out the win and learn a lot in this game this afternoon

So far this season the Lady Raiders have done very well at the free-throw line. They rank 13^th in the country with a 77.2 FT%. Tech is playing a clean game and have minimized their fouls (53^rd nationally). Also this team has done well in Blocked shots averaging 4 per game. They have shown improvement in their 3-point shots and have been more aggressive in the paint and on the boards in the last few games.

The Florida Atlantic Head Coach, Kellie Lewis-Jay, begins her 2nd season with the Owls. She came to FAU after serving 5 years as an assistant coach and main recruiter for Nebraska. Lewis-Jay's record at FAU is 19-19.

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The Starting Lineups:

Texas Tech

- G Diamond Lockhart Averages 6.9 PPG and 93.3% FT%

- G Minta Spears Averages 12.3 PPG and 3.2 RPG and 82.1 FT%

- G Audrisa Harrison Averages 5.3 PPG and 6.1 RPG and 78.5 FT%

- G Amber Battle Averages 16.4 PPG and 9.4 RPG

- C Shauntal Nobles Averages 6.4 PPG and 5.9 RPG and 80 FT%

Florida Atlantic

- G Takia Brooks Averages 11.9 PPG and 3.9 RPG and 87% FT%

- G Briah Blakely Averages 5.3 PPG and 81.8% FT% and has 20 Steals

- G Kimberly Smith Averages 10 PPG and 3.6 RPG and 82.1% FT%

- G Latavia Dempsey Averages 10.9 PPG and 2.1 RPG and 81.3% FT%

- F Chenise Miller Averages 13.6 PPG and 7.7 RPG and 9 Blocks

Notes:

The Big 12 is one of two conferences (Big Ten) in which every team is .500 or better.

Seventy percent of Big 12 teams are in the top 56 of the Jeff Sagarin RPI ratings and the Big 12 is rated No. 1 among conferences.

The Big 12 has faced 11 ranked non-conference foes with six of those in the top 10.

The Big 12 leads all Division I leagues in scoring with 77.69 points and in rebounding with 44.22 an outing.

The Conference is second with a .439 field goal percentage (2,440-of-5,556) and .715 free-throw percentage (1,556-of-2,176).

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To view or listen to the game go to TexasTech.TV

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 TexasTech.com.