BY TRAVIS CRAM
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

All Texas Tech head coach Kristy Curry could wish for the last two weeks of this holiday season was a solid start in a game for her Lady Raiders.

Texas Tech’s 83-46 win over Sacramento State on Saturday night at United Spirit Arena gave Curry her wish.

“I thought the first five minutes were (great),” Curry said. “… We’re just doing a better job of making sure we take better shots at the right times and good things are happening when you can finish. It gives us some confidence and momentum.”

The Lady Raiders (7-4) controlled the pace of the game from the start and picked away at getting the they wanted, hitting 58 percent of their shots.

Senior forward Dominic Seals followed up Thursday night’s double-double against Prairie View A&M with her fifth on Saturday, scoring 12 points while grabbing 10 rebounds.

Seals said attitude was the difference.

“We were more focused and came in more poised, not rushing into it,” said Seals, who scored in double figures for the 10th time this season. “We came in playing as a team. We communicated well, switched on every screen, just played more team ball.”

Tech hit its first 10 shots from the field, was nearly perfect at the line (12 of 15) and was able to keep Sacramento State (2-8) out of the paint for the most part, outscoring the Hornets 44-14.

Freshmen forwards Jordan Barncastle and Kierra Mallard joined Seals in double figures, scoring 12 and 10, respectively.

The three post players combined to shoot 56 percent from the field and had 14 of Tech’s 33 field goals.

The Lady Raiders opened with runs of 10-0, 11-0 and 12-0 in between three 3-pointers by the Hornets and a pair of free throws, leading by as much as 25 in the opening half.

“I think we’ve been working a lot on going through our plays fully and getting the shot that we want,” said junior forward Jordan Murphree, who finished with eight points.

And Tech rarely made mistakes by turning the ball over, giving up only 12.

The Hornets seemed to be destined to live and die by the 3-point shot early on, but it quickly became about Tech stopping sophomore guard Sami Field-Polisso.

She had one-third of Sacramento State’s field goals (6 of 18) and was 5 of 8 from behind the arc for a career-high 17 points.

The Lady Raiders will have a five-day break before the team returns to practice on Dec. 26 to prepare for a meeting with UCLA at 7 p.m. on Dec. 29.

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