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Go Lady Raiders!!!
RAIDER !!!! POWER !!!!
Game: Lady Raiders vs K-State Wildcats
Date: Saturday, January 31, 2015
Time: 3:00pm CST
Location: "The United Spirit Arena in Lubbock, TX
Radio: Texas Tech Sports Network (97.3 FM Lubbock) and KMAN 1350 AM (Manhattan, KS)
Stats: Gametracker
TV: FOX Sports Southwest (FSN)
Listen: TexasTechTV.com
The Lady Raiders (13-7, 3-5 Big12) pulled it all together and had a solid and great game on Wednesday night against the West Virginia Mountaineers (12-8, 2-6 Big12). Tech took a big step forward in their progress of gelling as a team and all of the lessons from the prior games and practices all cumulated together for a total team effort. The highlight and player-of-the-game goes to Amber Battle, who had a career high of 33 points and she nailed six 3-Ptrs and had 3 rebounds. The Lady Raiders fed off each other and made smart choices and played solid Defense. Kelsi Baker added 9 points and rebounds and 7 assists and she was perfect at the charity-stripe. Ivonne CookTaylor had a great night with 8 points and 4 rebounds. Jamie Roe had her best night as a Lady Raider with 5 points and 8 rebounds. The Lady Raiders had a 60% FG% accuracy in the 2nd half and a game percentage of 48.1% and they held WV to a 36.4% FG% for the game. Tech had a total of 19 Assists and 40 rebounds (11 off, 29 def). Final score was Texas Tech 73, West Virginia 57. I am hoping they stay steady and continue to grow in their game-play and play solid games with a lot of accurate attempts at the hoop and solid Defense.
Head Coach Candi Whitaker on her opening statement in the post-game presser:
"Big win for us. We needed this. We needed to be ready to go and this group was. They were a lot of fun to watch and coach tonight. I thought our entire team played well and did what they needed to do. I thought Amber Battle was special. It was fun to watch her be in a zone, play under control and have an offensive attack. I thought Kels did a great job of finding people. Jamie Roe just absolutely battled on the glass and came up with huge boards for us."
This afternoon, the Lady Raiders take on the Kansas State Wildcats (12-7, 2-6 Big 12) at 3pm CST at "The USA" in Lubbock, TX. This will be the 27th meeting with K-State leading the series 14 games to Tech's 12.
The Wildcats are currently 1st in the Big12 in Scoring Defense, however they are in the 10th spot in Scoring Offense. K-State are struggling at the charity stripe with only a 56.2% FT%. The Wildcats are the best in the Big12 and 5th in the nation at Steals averaging 12/game (228/season). K-State is 3rd in the Big12 in Blocked Shots with an average of 5.42/game (103/season)
The Wildcats are lead by Senior Forward #23 Ashia Woods who makes at least 9 ppg, 6.8 rpg and 2.3 Steals. Woods is backed up by Sophomore Forward #22 Breanna Lewis who averages 11.5 ppg, and 5.3 rpg and 3.5 blocks. Senior Guard #1 Haley Texada adds an average of 8.4 ppg and has 24 Steals this season. Sophomore Guard #24 Kindred Wesemann averages 6.8 ppg and 2.2 rpg and is the Wildcats strongest free-thrower at 71.9% FT%. Freshman Forward #59 Shaelyn Martin averages 4.6 ppg and 4.9 rpg and averages 2.5 Steals/game.
Defense will be the name of this game. Both of these teams have won their games this season by relying on their defense. Coach Whitaker has said Tech will be utilizing a mix between a Triangle Offense and 2-3 Zone Defense. A solid steady game from all of the Lady Raiders will be needed today with an emphasis on ball control will be the most important goal of the day.
The Starters for today's game are: Sophomore Guard #3 Minta Spears who is averaging 8 ppg and is 80.4% accurate at the charity stripe and is currently ranked 1st in the Big 12 standings for 3-Pt FG% with 45.6% (31-68); Junior (transfer) Guard #11 Rayven Brooks had 6.6 points and 3.6 rebounds and is currently ranked 10th in the Big12 standings for Blocked Shots and Steals with 18 blocks and 32 Steals this season; Freshman Forward #32 Dayo Olabode makes 8.5 ppg and 6.1 rebounds and is currently 13th in the Big12 with an average of 6.1 rebounds per games (120 total this season); Senior Forward #41 Kelsi Baker averages 10 ppg and 5.6 rebounds and is ranked 13th in the Big12 standing in Offensive Rebounds (2.30/game) and 8th in FT% at 72.2% (65-90); and Senior Guard #12 Amber Battle who averages 16.8 ppg and 6.2 rebounds and is 83.6% accurate from the free-throw line..
Focus on the game at hand
Get the Win ..... Wreck'Em !!!!
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Notes from the Big Conference:
The Big 12 remains ranked No. 1 in Conference RPI by the Collegiate Basketball News and is the only league in which every team is rated in the top 97.
The Big 12 is the only conference in which every team has a winning record.
The Big 12 is the lone conference in which every team has reached double-digit wins.
The Big 12 leads all leagues with its .817 (94-21) non-conference win percentage after finishing regular season games on a 12-0 streak. The mark is the highest for the Conference since recording an .861 percentage in 2011-12 non-conference regular season games.
Every Big 12 team finished non-conference play with a winning record for the eighth-consecutive year.
Big 12 teams protected their home court with a nation's-best 79-2 (.975) record in non-conference games.
The Conference has four wins over non-conference foes that were ranked in the Top 10 at game-time. The Big 12 faced 13 non-conference Top 25 teams with eight of those in the Top 10.
Seventy percent of Big 12 teams have a win over a ranked opponent and fifty percent have beaten a top 10 team.
Seventy percent of Big 12 teams played a ranked opponent during non-conference play.
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The game can be heard on the radio 93.7 FM (Lubbock and on the Texas Tech Sports Network )
The game will air on Fox Sports Southwest (FSN)
Live stats will be available on Gametracker
Listen: TexasTechTV.com