Fast Start, Strong Night from Scott, Push Texas Tech Past ORU

Powered by a season-high 24 points from senior guard Bre’Amber Scott, the Texas Tech Lady Raiders downed Oral Roberts 82-68 Wednesday night for their eighth straight win.

After recording her first career double-double against Sam Houston last Tuesday, Scott was simply sensational for Texas Tech (9-1) against Oral Roberts (3-8), scoring her 24 points in just 25 minutes on just 14 total shots.

The guard shot 7-of-14 from the floor, 4-of-5 from distance and 6-of-8 from the line.

Tech also received 15 points from sophomore Rhyle McKinney, 10 of which came in the 49-point second half.

Senior Katie Ferrell did typical Big Kat things on Wednesday, as the point-forward stuffed the stat-sheet to the tune of four points, six rebounds and two blocks. The Plano native was a team-best +21 in the victory.

In total, the Lady Raiders scored at least 20-points in three-of-four quarters including a 27-point output in the third.

Senior and Western Colorado transfer Hannah Cooper scored a game-high 30 points for the Golden Eagles in 40 minutes of action.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
Behind five quick points from Scott, the Lady Raiders got off to a strong start on Tuesday scoring the game’s first 12 points.

The run gave the Lady Raiders a 12-0 lead with 5:20 to play in the opening period.

After ORU scored on a Cooper layup, the Lady Raiders answered with the games’ next four-points to take a 16-2 lead with 4:04 to play.

Over the next two minutes and change of gametime, the Golden Eagles settled down, scoring 10 of the next 12 to draw to within 19-12 with 1:24 left in the opening period.

A clutch triple from McKinney and an acrobatic jumper from Kilah Freelon increased the Lady Raider lead to 24-12 after 10 minutes of play.

Tech shot a blistering 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) from the field in the first 10 minutes as seven different players scored at least two points.

In the second quarter, the Lady Raiders used another five quick points from Scott to take a first-half best 29-12 lead with 9:16 to play.

Oral Roberts answered the 9-0 Tech run with the next four points and eight of the next 10, to cut the Tech lead to just 31-20 with 2:17 to play.

McKinney answered with Tech’s eighth and ninth points of the quarter with a jumper to extend the lead to 33-20, but ORU and Cooper scored the final seven points of the period to draw to within 33-27 at the break.

In the second quarter, the Lady Raiders shot just 3-of-11 from the field (27.4 percent) and turned the ball over six times.

After halftime the Lady Raiders responded, using yet another clutch Scott 3-pointer to jumpstart a 6-0 run that pushed the lead back to double-digits, at 39-27.

After a fast break layup from Cooper broke the ice for ORU in the second half, the Lady Raiders used a pair of free throws from senior Bryn Gerlich to spark a 4-0 run that eventually turned into a 11-2 run.

The outburst gave the Lady Raiders a game-high 19-point (50-31) lead.

Needing a response, ORU turned to the 3-ball, hitting three straight triples to draw to within 52-42 with 2:24 to play in the quarter.

Tech quickly responded with the next four points to push the lead to 56-42 with 1:33 to play, but ORU used one last triple to score eight of the final 12 points.

The run cut the once 19-point Lady Raider lead to just 10 heading to the fourth.

Much like the opening quarter, the scoring in the third was extremely balanced, as seven different Lady Raiders scored in the period. Scott led the way for Tech in the quarter scoring six points.

Again, like the previous three quarters, the Lady Raiders got off to a strong start in the fourth, using a pair of free throws from center Jazmaine Lewis to cap a brief 4-0 run that gave the Lady Raiders a 64-50 advantage with 8:54 left.

Like they did all night, ORU found a way to hang around, scoring six of the next eight to climb back to within 10 at 66-56.

Needing a basket, Tech turned to its senior guard, Scott, who nailed her fourth and final triple of the night. The basket gave the Lady Raiders a 69-56 advantage with 7:02 to play.

ORU scored the next four points to cut the Tech lead to just 69-60 with 6:04 to play, but five of the next seven went the way of the home team to pull the lead back to 12 with 3:25 to play.

Down the stretch, the Lady Raider lead did not go below 10, as Tech closed out an 82-68 victory to improve to 9-1 on the young season.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
• Tech scored 20 points in three of the four quarters tonight.
• With their 27-point third quarter, the Lady Raiders have now scored at least 25 points in a quarter five times.
• The most points in a quarter this season came against Alabama State when the Lady Raiders erupted for 30 in the third quarter.
• Tech scored 22 points in the fourth on Wednesday, improving to 6-0 this season when hitting that mark.
• After outscoring ORU 22-18, the Lady Raiders are also 7-0 when winning the fourth quarter.
• McKinney continues to score and score efficiently. The guard is now averaging 13.7 points on 55.7 (54-of-97) percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting (20-for-40) from 3-point range.
• The Argyle native has now scored 15 points in back-to-back games and has six games with at least 15 points this season.
• In addition to her 15 points, McKinney grabbed five rebounds and had a career-high three steals.
• As a team, the Lady Raiders had a season-best 10 steals. The 10 steals are the most in a game since Jan. 19, 2022 when Tech had 12 steals at TCU.
• With her 24-point performance, Scott eclipsed 100 points on the season in just her eighth game.
• The Lady Raiders improve to 8-0 this season when Scott plays. The guard is now averaging 12.8 points and 5.9 rebounds. If she continues on her current pace she would set career-best marks in both categories.
• Tech’s three leading rebounders this season are all guards: Scott (47), Shavers (42) and Bailey Maupin (41).
• After not attempting a free throw for the first time in her career, Maupin went 2-of-2 at the line on Wednesday and is now shooting 47-of-52 on the year (90.4 percent).
• Tech outrebound ORU 37-23 and limited the Golden Eagles to just four second-chance points.

COACH SPEAK (HC KRISTA GERLICH):
“You know, obviously we love to win, and I’m excited that these girls pulled that off. I thought we opened the game really well. I thought we stuck to our game plan and had a really good pace about us. I thought we were attacking the basket. We got some good shots, and I thought we had a really good flow. We got in a little bit of foul trouble in the second quarter, and they went to a zone. Teams zoning us normally doesn’t bother us, but I felt like we became a little bit too passive and didn’t continue to attack as much as we did in the first quarter. I didn’t think that our defense got weaker, but it just felt like our offense wasn’t clicking. And that was apparent in the score. But I did think that the second half we came back out, set the tone again, and finished. I thought Bre was really good all night long. I thought she gave us some confidence. She was really aggressive to the basket, scored in a variety of ways, and she defended well too. And then I thought Rhyle was really patient and took some good shots late in the game that really helped us just to hold them off a little bit. Obviously, we’re still turning the basketball over too much and just doing some things that we need to clean up. But overall we’re a pretty young basketball team and we’re playing young kids at times. Overall I thought that our kids really dug deep and played hard to win the game.”

ON HER TEAMS’ PERFORMANCE IN THE FOURTH QUARTER THIS SEASON:
I still think it’s just the confidence and experience that our kids have. We’ve got five seniors that have played a lot of basketball. We lost a lot of close games last year and I think they’ve just learned from that. I think they’ve just learned how to handle it better. They’ve had more experience in those types of situations and they’re just being confident and executing. You know I’m proud of how they’re staying together and just continuing to fight and how we’re finding a way to put games away.”

UP NEXT:
The Lady Raiders continue the December eight-game homestand on Monday night when the McNeese Cowgirls visit Lubbock. Tip-off from United Supermarkets Arena is set for 7 p.m.

–TECH–

Release provided by Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics