Lady Raiders’ Progress Stalls in Waco With Loss to Baylor
The Texas Tech Lady Raiders were held to a season-low shooting percentage in a 69-43 loss to No. 4 Baylor on Wednesday night in Waco, Texas.
Baylor (20-1, 7-1) and Tech (10-10, 1-8) had a back and forth first half before the Bears stretched their lead to 33-19 just before halftime. Baylor began the 3rd quarter with a 8-2 run and did not look back, maintaining the double digit lead for the remainder of the game.
The game was not without its bright spots for the Lady Raiders. Japreece Dean finished the night with 17 points, going 6-6 from the free throw line.
Dean is a solid candidate for freshman of the year with an outstanding stretch in Big 12 play. It was the 14th time this season Dean scored in double figures and the seventh in conference play.
The personal success of Dean, unfortunately, has not translated to team success for the Lady Raiders.
Baylor held the Lady Raiders to an abysmal 15-61 from the floor (.246) and 1-13 from there-point range (.077), which are season lows in both areas. Hopefully those numbers remain season lows and the Lady Raiders outperform this output in their remaining games. You can't win a Big 12 basketball game shooting 25 percent from the floor.
The score wasn't the only lopsided number, as Baylor out-rebounded the Lady Raiders 50-31. They also out assisted the Red Raiders with 23 assists (to Tech's 7), but that is mostly due to inept shooting by Texas Tech. You can't spell 'assist' without 'made shots.'
“[Their size] is a strength of theirs,” Texas Tech head coach Candi Whitaker said. “You have to do your best to keep them off the glass and to grab the rebounds you can get. I thought we did a decent job of keeping them off the offensive glass, which was an emphasis for us.”
In the WTH stat of the night, Tech was able to force 21 Baylor turnovers and collected 12 steals on the night. Which means that Baylor played a sloppy, no-good, very bad game and still beat the Lady Raiders by more than 25.
“I thought we did a good job of mixing it up between man and zone defensively, and caused some turnovers,” Whitaker said. “However, they have a lot of weapons, and eventually they were going to get open looks. I thought we gave up too many transition opportunities, but I was happy for the most part with how we defended in the half court."
Here are some highlights of the game:
Source: Texastech.com