WBB: Lady Raiders vs Texas Longhorns

Go Lady Raiders!!!

RAIDER !!!!    POWER !!!!

Game: Texas Tech Lady Raiders vs. Texas Longhorns

Date: Saturday March 1, 2014

Time: 2:00pm CST

Location: "The USA" in Lubbock, TX

Streaming Video: TexasTech.TV

Streaming Audio: TexasTech.TV

Radio: Texas Tech Sports Network (97.3 FM Lubbock) and  KVET-AM 1300 Austin, TX

Gametracker:  www.texastech.com/gametracker

The Lady Raiders (6-21, 0-16) take on the Texas Longhorns (18-10, 9-7) this afternoon at "The United Spirit Arena" in Lubbock, TX at 2:00pm CST.  Tech is still looking to get their first Big12 Conference win this season. This game will be the 92nd meeting between the Lady Raiders and the Longhorns.

This will be the final home game for the Lady Raiders this season so it is Senior Day for seniors Forward/Center Shauntal Nobles and Center Haley Schneider.  Nobles has a career record of 527 ppg, 536 rpg, 44% FG%, 53 Blocks from playing in 117 games of which she started in 48. She earned a BBA in Business Administration and was on the "Academic All- Big 12 team" four times and is working on her MBA. Schneider will end her basketball career with 101 ppg, 85 rpg, 35.8% FG%, 54 Blocks from 60 games played with 3 starts. She has already graduated with a Civil Engineering degree and is working on her masters. Schneider was selected to the "Academic All-Big 12 First Team" this season.

Senior Day Activities:

1. First 1,000 fans receive a Lady Raider Nation T-shirt.

2. There will be a special pregame recognition for 2014 Southwest Conference Hall of Fame inductee - former Lady Raider Carolyn Thompson.

3. Senior Day Salute at the conclusion of the game.

4. A chance to win $10k or a trip to Las Vegas

5. Free "bevo burgers" for the 1st 100 students

It has been an incredibly frustrating and long season for this squad. Head Coach Candi Whitaker will continue to coach and train the remaining members of this team and will bring new players into the mix that will get this program back on track and back into the status of excellence it had. The Lady Raiders take on their oldest rival the Texas Longhorns today.  I expect this game to be a hard fought game and I am hoping for the team's sake and especially for Nobles and Schneider that they get the win.  Texas Tech has had a few close games this season but has not been able to finish and get the win. If they can play like they did against Iowa State and Oklahoma State and play smart then they can get the win today.

It will not be easy, the Lady Raiders are coming home from a one-sided game against West Virginia and I am not sure if this squad can get their motivation up after being knocked down so many times this season.  But each and every game, this team has held their heads high and fought against more experienced teams and they have maintained their energy right up to the end of each and every game.  This team has gumption and I hope their efforts pay-off today with a win.

The Longhorns are always a tough adversary and this season they have the best 3-Pt FG% in the Big12 at 36.5% (154-422). They also lead the Big12 in FG% Defense at 34% and Rebounding Defense (32.9%) and their Rebounding Margin (+11.8). Texas is lead by Junior Forward NNeka Enemkpali with 12.7 ppg and 8.8 Rebounds and Senior Guard Chassidy Fussell with 10.1 ppg and 78.9% FT%. Sophomore Guard Brady Sanders is a 3-pt machine averaging over 39.8 3-Pt completions and rarely misses at the free-throw line (83.3% FT%). Emerging as key players for the Longhorns are Sophomore Point Guard Celina Rodrigo, who averages 3.8 ppg and 100 Assists on the season (3.6 average) and Sophomore Center Imani McGee-Stafford with a 10.2 ppg and 7.1 rpg.

The UT Longhorns Head Coach Karen Aston is in her 2nd season with Texas. Aston's current record is 131-91 and with UT 30-28. She was the Head Coach at Charlotte for 4 years (86-44) and one year at North Texas (15-16). Previously she was an Assistant Coach under Jody Conradt for 8 years. At Charlotte, Aston set a school record for wins in a season (27) in 2010-201.

Keys to the win:

To get the win, the Lady Raiders need to get fouled by the Longhorns and then make their shots count at the charity-stripe

Amber Battle and Haley Schneider have to have a good day on Defensive Rebounds as Tech has the advantage over UT in the season stats.

The Lady Raiders will have to defend strong on the 3-Pt shots

Tech has to block-out and not let UT score in the paint

Control the ball and limit the turnovers

The Starting Lineups:

Texas Tech

G - Minta Spears, RS Freshman, 5-10, 9.0 PPG and 2.6 RPG and 81.7 FT%

G - Ivonne Cook-Taylor, RS Freshman, 5-8,  5.0 PPG and 3.5 RPG and 77.3 FT%

G - Amber Battle, Junior, 5-9, 16.7 PPG and 7.7 RPG and 73.4 FT%

C - Shauntal Nobles, 6-3, RS Senior 5.6 PPG and 6.1 RPG and 68.1 FT%

G - Marina Lizarazu, 5-8, Freshman, 5.4 PPG and 1.3 RPG and 54.3 FT%

Texas

G - Celina Rodrigo, Sophomore, 5-8, 10.0 PPG and 2.7 RPG and 53.6 FT%

G - Chassidy Fussell, Senior, 5-10, 10.1 PPG and 3.9 RPG and 77.1 FT%

G - Brady Sanders, Sophomore, 5-11, 7.4 PPG and 2.9 RPG and 83.3 FT%

F - Nneka Enemkpali, Junior, 6-1, 12.7 PPG and 8.8 RPG and 68.4 FT%

C - Imani McGee-Stafford, Sophomore, 6-7, 10.2 PPG and 7.1 RPG and 57.4 FT%

Notes:

Texas Tech is 4^th in the Conference in FT% (71.7%)

The Big 12 is the only conference with 60 percent of its squads listed in the top 40 of the NCAA RPI.

Every Big 12 team is in the top 25 percent for strength of schedule out of 341 teams.

47.6 percent of the Big 12's losses this year have been to teams ranked in the top 25 of the current NCAA RPI.

Fifty percent of Big 12 teams are in the top 25 nationally in field goal percentage defense.

27 Big 12 league games have been decided by 7-or-less points with 14 of those determined by 5-or-fewer points.

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To listen (free) or watch (pay) the game go to TexastechTV (http://www.texastech.com/allaccess/)

The game can be heard on the radio 97.3 FM  (Lubbock and on the Texas Tech Sports Network (www.TexasTech.com)  and  KVET-AM 1300 Austin, TX and the UT Sports Network

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

Texas	- -	Category	- -	Texas Tech
Enemkpali (12.7)	- -	Scoring Leader	- -	Battle (17.2)
Enemkpali (8.8)	- -	Rebounding Leader	- -	Battle (7.8)
Rodrigo (3.57)	- -	Assist Leader	- -	Lizarazu (3.18)
69.7	- -	Scoring	- -	59.6
58.9	- -	Scoring Defense	- -	68.7
+10.8	- -	Scoring Margin	- -	-9.1
43.9%	- -	FG %	- -	37.2%
34.0%	- -	FG % Defense	- -	42.8%
36.5%	- -	3-Pt. %	- -	28.0%
28.0%	- -	3 Pt. % Defense	- -	35.9%
66.7%	- -	FT %	- -	72.1%
15.5	- -	Assists/game	- -	10.7
44	- -	Rebounds/game	- -	36
33	- -	Opp. Rebounds/game	- -	39
+11	- -	Rebounding Margin	- -	-3
18.6	- -	Turnovers/game	- -	16
14.9	- -	Opp. Turnovers	- -	14.5
-3.7		Turnover Margin		-1.5
6	- -	Steals/game	- -	6
4.1	- -	Blocks/game	- -	3.4
933 (26.1)	- -	1st Half Pts	- -	700 (21.0)
742 (20.8)	- -	Opp. 1st Half Pts	- -	833 (25.0)
1007 (28.2)	- -	2nd Half Pts	- -	856 (25.7)
893 (24.9)	- -	Opp. 2nd Half Pts	- -	941 (28.3)