Lady Raiders Drop Alumni Weekend Contest to Baylor

LUBBOCK, Texas – On the 30th anniversary celebration of the 1993 National Championship, the Texas Lady Raiders fell to Baylor, 79-59 in front of an electric crowd of over 8,000 Saturday afternoon at United Supermarkets Arena.

With over 85 former players in attendance and in the National Girls and Women in Sports Day Celebration, Texas Tech (15-6, 3-5 Big 12) struggled to overcome a 1-for-17 stretch in Saturday’s third quarter.

The cold spell came at the worst possible time for the Lady Raiders who raced out of the halftime break by scoring the second half’s first seven points to trim a 36-26 halftime to just 36-33.

With all the momentum and the crowd of 8,235 roaring, the shots just stopped falling.

Despite missing the next 14 shots from the field they attempted, the Lady Raiders trailed just 40-36 with 5:49 to play in the third and by seven with 3:32 to play in the quarter, but Baylor (14-6, 5-3 Big 12) closed the third quarter on a 13-4 run to take a 54-40 lead into the fourth.

In the fourth, Tech scored seven of the first 11 points to get to within 58-47, but Baylor closed with 21-12 run to close out a 79-59 victory.

Tech was led by guards Bre’Amber Scott and Jasmine Shavers. Scott scored 22 points, while Shavers added 19 points and five rebounds. The guard hit the only two triples the Lady Raiders made on the afternoon.

Baylor saw five of its seven players that played Saturday reach double figures including Caitlin Bickle who scored 14 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Freshman Darianna Littlepage-Buggs added 16 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
Tech started the game off strong drawing a 30-second shot clock violation and a traveling violation on Baylor’s first two possessions.

The strong defensive sequences allowed Tech to take its last lead of the game, at 4-2 with 7:59 to play in the first.

After Baylor responded with the next six points to race out in front 8-4, Tech used back-to-back layups from Scott to tie the game at eight-all with 5:12 to play in the opening quarter.

Baylor would score the games’ next six points, but Tech used four quick points from Ella Tofaoeno to draw to within 14-12 with 2:59 to play.

The Lady Raiders would not score the rest of the period, as Baylor scored the final six points of the quarter to take an 18-12 advantage after 10 minutes.

Tech struck first in the second quarter using a Scott layup to get to within 18-14 with 8:40 to play.

After the Scott basket, 15 of the next 21 points went the way of Baylor, as the Bears led 33-20 with 2:42 to play in the half.

Shavers tried to bring Tech back into the ballgame by scoring the games’ next five points to cut the Bears advantage to 33-25, but Baylor scored four of the final six to lead 36-26 at the break.

As previously mentioned, the Lady Raiders open the second half on fire, scoring the quarters’ first seven points to draw to within 36-33.

Baylor scored eight of the next nine points to take a 44-34 lead, but Tech used four quick free throws from Scott to claw to within 45-38 with 3:32 to play.

Baylor answered with the next seven and nine of the final 11 to take a 53-40 lead into the fourth.

In the fourth, Baylor scored the first five to take a then game-high 58-41 lead with 8:56 to play.

After Tech rallied to score the next six, Baylor quickly answered right back with another six points to take a 64-47 lead with 6:29 to play.

Down the stretch, Tech got to within 14 points twice, but each time Baylor had an answer, allowing the Bears to close out their 27th straight win in the series.

HEAD COACH KRISTA GERLICH:
“I can’t express enough, my gratitude for our fans and the crowd that was there. As well as our Marketing department, staff and administration. Really everybody that played a role in this weekend. I also want to thank Lady Raider Nation for coming out and supporting us. That was a fantastic atmosphere. I don’t feel like the game was great to watch. I need to go back and watch it myself, but I hate that we didn’t play better. But you have to credit Baylor for that too. Baylor’s a good basketball team. Their guards are really tough and (Caitlin) Bickle plays well on the inside for them. I also felt like we did not attack them as well as we should have. We let a few broken plays or no calls, whatever it might have been, kind of get to us early. That made us a little bit timid. I thought we came out of the half and attacked well for a couple of possessions and then we went right back to being more timid and taking some step back threes and one foot jumpers, things that are uncharacteristic for us. I hope that our kids will learn from this one. I’m super disappointed for them because I know they wanted to play well for this crowd and for everybody that was here. I think they knew they could beat Baylor, they just didn’t get it done. We’ll go back to work and continue to fight. I will never count this group out. I know they will continue to fight.”

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
• Shavers hit the only two 3-pointers the Lady Raiders hit on Saturday. The guard was 2-of-3 from deep and now has hit a three in five straight.
• The guard reached double figures or the fourth time in the last five games and for the 10th time this season.
• Scott recorded her eighth overall 20-point game and sixth in conference play.
• She now has reached double-figures in six of the last seven games and has scored at least 18 points in all eight Big 12 games.
• With her 22 point performance, Scott surpassed 300 points on the season and moves to within 175 points of reaching 1,000 for her career.
• After leading the country in 3-point percentage in the month of December, Tech has struggled the last two games shooting a combined 5-of-40 from 3-point range in the last two games.
• Tech did force 17 Baylor turnovers. It’s just the second time in 13 games this season that Tech has lost when forcing more than 15 turnovers.

UP NEXT:
The Lady Raiders hit the road for a midweek contest at Oklahoma State. Tip-off from Stillwater is set for 6:30 p.m.

–TECH–

Release provided by Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics