Lady Raiders play the #23 Cyclones

The Lady Raiders (16-5, 6-3) will start the second part of the Big12 schedule, when they go up against the #23/22 Iowa State Cyclones (14-5, 5-4) on Saturday, Feb 2, 2013 at 1pm at the Hilton Coliseum in Ames, IA. This will be Tech's fifth road game in conference play. They have a 3-1 record so far in away games with the one loss in Norman, OK against the #21 Sooners.

The Lady Raiders are coming off a loss against Baylor on Wednesday night. They kept the game fairly close the first half of play and at one point, scored three 3-Ptrs in a short segment of time to keep Baylor in-check but the 2^nd half was a struggle and Tech went cold in their shooting and fell behind. The final score was a 30 point difference with a final score of 90-60. The Lady Raiders never quit in this game and they made some very aggressive plays against the Bears and their Center Brittney Griner. They went on the inside and were not afraid of Griner like other teams have shown. Tech had 37 Rebounds, 2 Blocks, 2 Steals and 18 Pts-in-the-paint but they could not overcome the height advantage Baylor controls. "She's 6-(foot)-8," Tech coach Curry said simply when asked what allowed Griner to find a bevy of easy looks Wednesday.

In Tech's previous game against the Cyclones this season, the Lady Raiders fell short by 4 points. This time Tech travels to Ames and will confront the Cyclones on their homecourt. The history of these teams is full of tightly played battles where the lead changes dozens of times and every basket is countered by the opponent. Tech will be playing the Cyclones for the 22^nd time. Iowa State leads the series 11-10.

Iowa State is also coming off a loss in their game on Wednesday night. The Cyclones fell to Kansas 78-75. Iowa State led by 18 points but Kansas battled back and tied the game in the final seconds of regulation and then pulled out the win in overtime. It will be an extremely tough game for the Lady Raiders as the Cyclones have won nine of their last 10 home games. The Cyclones are an extremely strong free-throw team and are number one in the Big12 with a 78.8% FT%. The Cyclones are one of the top defensive teams in the nation. They rank 33rd nationally allowing opponents just 53.9 points per game behind the nation's 18th-ranked field goal percentage defense (34.1 percent). The Cyclones are very good at defending the 3-point shots and they are only allowing opponents 28.4% of the shots behind the arc.

The two players to watch on the Cyclones team are Junior Forward Hallie Christofferson and Senior forward Chelsea Poppens. Christofferson averages 14.8 points per game and 6.6 Rebounds per game. Poppens averages 11.6 points per game and she also averages 9.1 Rebounds per game. The Cyclones are currently in 4th place in the Big12 standings. They are number one in the Big12 in the following stats: Free-Throw % (78.8) and Defensive Rebounds (32.6) and are only 2^nd behind Baylor in Scoring Defense (53.9).

Texas Tech is currently in 3^rd place in the Big12 standings. The Lady Raiders lead the Big 12 Conference in total steals with 236 in 21 games (11.24 per game). The Lady Raiders have one of the best turnover margin averages in the country at +5.38. Tech's FT% have been above the 67% mark and it thre of their games it was over 80%. Three of the Lady Raiders are averaging in the double figures. Casey Morris leads the pack with an average of 12 points/game followed by Chynna Brown at 11.6pts/game and Kelsi Baker at 10pts/game. Monique Smalls and Christine Hyde round out the high scorers with an average of 8.4pts and 9.9pts per game respectively. Coach Kristy Curry is in her 7th season and her current record at Texas Tech is 125-92 but is only 2-6 against Iowa State. Tech will have to play a very defensive game and take advantage of the turnovers if they are to pull out the win over the Cyclones.

The Cyclones' Head Coach, Bill Fennelly is in his 18th season with the Iowa State. His career record is 552-231 and with Iowa State 386-178. His teams have made 16 NCAA Championship appearances in his 24 seasons as a head coach and he ranks among the nation's top 25 active women's basketball college coaches in overall winning percentage. Fennelly is considered the dean of Big 12 women's basketball coaches and was granted a lifetime contract from Iowa State in 2007.

The Starting Lineups:

Texas Tech

G Monique Smalls Averages 8.4 Pts and has 41 Steals

G Casey Morris Averages 12.0 Pts and has a 78.3% FT%

G Chynna Brown Averages 11.6 Pts and 5.4 Rebounds/game

F Christine Hyde Averages 9.9 Pts and 5.7 Rebounds/game

F Kelsi Baker Averages 10 Pts and 5.3 Rebounds/game

Iowa State

F Hallie Christofferson Averages 14.8 Pts and 6.6 Rebounds/game

F Chelsea Poppens Averages 11.6 Pts and has a 84.9% FT%

G/F Brynn Williamson Averages 9.0 Pts and has a 81.6% FT%

C Anna Prins Averages 10.5 Pts and 5.7 Rebounds/game

G Nikki Moody Averages 8.5 Pts and 3.5 Rebounds/game

Notes:

The Texas Tech - Baylor game on Wednesday drew 12,871 fans to United Spirit Arena in Lubbock - the most to attend a Lady Raider basketball game in the Kristy Curry era. It was the largest turnout since March 1, 2006 (15,050).

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 Cyclone Radio Network/Learfield

Live stats will be available on Gametracker at www.cyclones.com/liveStats.

The GameThread will go up at 12:45pm

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Stats	Texas Tech	NCAA Rank		Iowa State	NCAA Rank
Scoring	66.1	91st		65.6	120th
Defensive Scoring	55.1	34th		53.9	25th
Scoring Margin	+11.0	30th		+11.7	36th
Field Goal %	40.50%	88th		41.90%	62nd
3-Point Field Goal %	33.20%	52nd		31.90%	109th
Free Throw %	67.70%	190th		78.80%	7th
Rebounds Per Game	37.6	215th		40.9	NA
Rebound Margin	+2.3	97th		+8.4	16th
Assists Per Game	10.9	273rd		16.3	21st
Turnovers Per Game	14.8	46th		18.3	206th
Steals Per Game	11.2	34th		7.5	281st
Turnover Margin	+5.4	14th		-2.6	286th
Blocks per Game	2.2	297th		3.4	165th