Bob Levey / Ap Texas Tech's Kierra Mallard, second from right, puts up a short jump hook in traffic in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Texas A&M, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010, in College Station, Texas. Texas A&M won 69-54. (AP Photo/Bob Levey)

But ever since a 59-58 victory against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Dec. 18, the road has been a treacherous place for these Lady Raiders.

In three away games since that victory in Los Angeles, Tech is 0-3 with losses against Tulane, then-No. 14 Oklahoma and Saturday’s 69-54 loss at No. 9 Texas A&M.

The team’s shooting percentage in those three games combined was 35.5% (60-for-169), and all three losses were by at least 15 points.

In the five home or neutral court games since UCLA, Tech is shooting 42.3 percent (131-for-309) from the floor. Four of those games were double-digit wins, and the fifth was the 95-90 double overtime loss to Texas at United Spirit Arena.

It isn’t the hostile crowds, though, that makes playing on the road so tough, freshman guard Monique Smalls said.

“It wasn’t really effective,” she said after the loss at Reed Arena. “To me it didn’t bother me. I just think we kind of zone it out and we just play the game.”

If it’s not the crowds, what makes Big 12 road games so challenging?

“It’s not just the Big 12,” said senior forward Ashlee Roberson, who scored a team-high 22 points and was the only Tech player in double figures. “It’s all over. We just have got to stay poised and under control as a team. We’re a family and we got to have each other’s backs. It’s not the road that’s a factor. We just got to come together and stay positive.”

Tech (13-5, 1-3 in Big 12) was 0-for-8 from 3-point range Saturday, marking the second time this season the Lady Raiders went without a 3-point field goal. They went 0-for-10 from outside the perimeter in the loss against Tulane.

A&M coach Gary Blair knew how ready Tech was going to be when it arrived in College Station, and the seventh-year coach expected a physical, hard-fought game.

He wasn’t disappointed.

The Aggies jumped out to a 10-0 lead, but the game was mostly even from then on, with both teams going on their share of runs.

“Tech is coming off an emotional loss to Texas where they just flat outplayed Texas,” Blair said. “I’m just fortunate to get out of here with a win.”

The Lady Raiders have a pair of home games this week before they face their next road test at Iowa State on Feb. 3.

A midweek win against either No. 7 Nebraska, perhaps the hottest team in the country, or in the rematch against No. 13 Oklahoma this weekend would give the Lady Raiders some much-needed momentum and prevent them from leaving for Ames, Iowa, with a 1-5 conference record.

“I think we’re just looking forward to Lubbock,” Curry said after the A&M loss. “We’ll take this, and each experience every day is an opportunity. And we just focus on getting better every day.

“It’s a great opportunity for us next week and I think we’re going to embrace that and move on and learn and grow. It’s honestly the first group we’ve had that every day when they compete, it hurts when they lose and still when they win they’re not satisfied. I love this team and the makeup and what they’re about and feel good about what next week holds for us.”

“We just have got to stay poised and under control as a team. We’re family an we got to have each other’s backs.” Ashlee Roberson

Lady Raiders senior forward

Lady Raiders on the road and at neutral courts

Date Opponent Location Outcome Score

Nov. 17 No. 6 Tennessee San Antonio Loss 91-53

Dec. 18 UCLA Los Angeles Win 59-58

Dec. 28 North Dakota New Orleans Win 81-61

Dec. 29 Tulane New Orleans Loss 67-49

Jan. 9 No.14 Oklahoma Norman, Okla. Loss 73-58

Jan. 23 No. 9 Texas A&M College Station Loss 69-54

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Both players tallied a career-high 29 points and both sank at least a dozen field goals. Murphree finished just shy of a triple-double, grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds and tying her career high with eight assists.

Roberson’s animated emotions during the game rallied the Lady Raiders throughout regulation and the first overtime period. She hit a jumper with 30 seconds to go in that first overtime to put Tech up by four points. Mary Bokenkamp added a pair of free throws on Tech’s next possession to put the Lady Raiders up six.

But the Longhorns went on a remarkable run, forcing two turnovers in Tech’s backcourt and scoring six points in 11 seconds to tie the game, and then outlasted the Lady Raiders in the second overtime.

But Roberson isn’t letting the outcome completely negate Tech’s performance on Saturday.

“I feel like we played great overall, so I’m just enjoying that we have another chance to go out against Texas,” she said. “We’re just looking forward to going to (Texas) A&M (on Saturday) and going and getting that win until it’s that time again.”

Tech head coach Kristy Curry went a step further, calling the performances from Roberson and Murphree two of the best she’s seen.

“It’s one of the best games I’ve ever been a part of as far as what seniors stepped up and did,” Curry said. “Not just on the offensive end, but whether it’s a big stop or a big rebound. Just their leadership and what they said and how they said it. It was as good an effort as I’ve been a part of from two seniors on the same night. To have two do that, I thought it was just as special as it could be — except for the loss.”

3-point surprises
The Lady Raiders got some much-needed help beyond the perimeter on Saturday from forwards Jordan Barncastle and Marissa Ashton.

Trailing Texas 69-68 with 1:27 left in the second half, Ashton sank her first 3-pointer of the Big 12 Conference season to give the Lady Raiders the lead.

Barncastle came through with 1:30 left in the first overtime period, putting Tech up 79-77 with her fifth trey of the season.

Curry said she sees the two young forwards routinely make shots from the perimeter in practice. But as pleased as she was about the huge baskets the two made Saturday, Curry would much rather see Barncastle and Ashton making more of an impact on the boards.

The 6-foot-2 Barncastle didn’t grab any rebounds in 10 minutes of playing time against Texas. That forced Curry to look to Ashton, who didn’t match up as well but was having more success on the glass.

“We’ve got to have more of a presence on the rebounding end from both of them when Kierra (Mallard) and Ashlee aren’t in the game,” Curry said. “It’s a matter of them just wanting to do something about it.”

Quick starts
Earlier this season, Curry went about fixing the slow starts the Lady Raiders seemed to so often get off to.

In the last two games, Tech has shown how far it has come in correcting that problem.

The Lady Raiders took a 16-2 lead against Colorado in the first six minutes of last week’s victory. Then they got off to a 9-0 start against Texas on Saturday.

“You got to give props to the coaches,” Roberson said. “They spent a lot of time on the scouting reports and practice time. We just go out and try to give it our all. We do that same start in College Station (on Saturday) and I think we’ll be great.”

Curry said she likes to win games in pieces, breaking down each four-minute segment into manageable sessions.

“You come out and work on the first four or five things that we want to do from the tilt all the way to the first inbounds,” she said. “It’s just great energy and effort. You’ve got to come out with that. If you don’t, you’ve got to make sure that between the 16-minute mark and the 12-minute mark, or the 12- and the eight-, that you throw some punches in those periods.”

Curry said the Lady Raiders now need work on bringing that momentum into the second half. Tech has been outscored in the second half in each of its past two games.

In games past, the Lady Raiders have managed to win despite subpar performances on the glass.

In an interesting twist, Tech outrebounded Tulane 46-31 on Tuesday night and lost the game 67-49.

Tech had 18 offensive rebounds to Tulane’s 11. So, how did the Lady Raiders manage to lose by 18 points?

Curry said her team is simply being too passive.

“We’re not getting any productivity from the offensive glass,” she said. “We get an offensive rebound and we’re passive. The defense is set on the offensive glass, so you’ve got to be aggressive. We have to be more aggressive.”

Tech scored 14 second-chance points against Tulane. Against North Dakota, the Lady Raiders scored 12. They scored just nine in their previous game against Mercer on Dec. 21.

Tulane junior forward Danielle Nunn was certainly pleased with her team’s defense against Tech – she had good reason to be.

The Green Wave stole the ball 13 times and scored 13 fast break points, all of which were manufactured by the defense.

“That’s what we do – pressure,” said Nunn, who scored a team-high 15 points. “That’s what we do in practice. We get up and we pressure each other. It’s about being in the right place at the right time.”

ALL-TOURNAMENT RAIDERS

Kierra Mallard and Ashlee Roberson earned spots on the All-Tournament Team at the 2009 Tulane DoubleTree Classic.
Both would have traded the honor in favor of a victory against the
Green Wave.

“It doesn’t matter,” Mallard said, “because we lost.”
Mallard scored 33 combined points against Tulane and North Dakota.
She grabbed 21 total rebounds and had seven blocks – five of which came against North Dakota alone.

Roberson snared a career-high 18 rebounds against Tulane and grabbed 10 against North Dakota. She scored a total 17 points in the two games.

“It feels good,” she said. “But I would rather have a win and then get All-Tournament Team.”

QUOTE OF THE GAME

Tulane coach Lisa Stockton looked at the game against Texas Tech as an opportunity to make a statement.

With that in mind, her team followed through, and then some.

“We talked about that with the team, that this is an opportunity game,” Stockton said. “It’s one that we can make a statement with. The Big 12 is the No. 1 conference in the country. We would like to make a statement with it because Texas Tech is such a good team. I never would have anticipated this kind of margin (of victory).”

It’s a defensive strategy the Lady Raiders have seen before and will keep adjusting to. With more and more game tape games available to the competition, teams are going to notice the type of season the sophomore center is having.

UCLA coach Nikki Caldwell said she put extra pressure in the post in Friday night’s 59-58 Tech victory, just as New Mexico had done two weeks earlier at United Spirit Arena.

Both teams were successful in keeping Mallard’s points down, but neither team was able to defeat Tech.

“They’re going to try and cram her down,” Tech guard Monique Smalls said of Mallard. “She’s getting in the habit now of passing it back out, and if we don’t have a (3-pointer) we just throw it back in and get her an easy basket. I think we adjusted to that really well.”

Mallard still scored eight points against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, but she was just 3-of-12 from the floor. More often than not, the opportunities to score underneath simply weren’t there.

She also turned the ball over five times in the game, including three traveling calls in the second half.

But Mallard’s presence in the post creates opportunities for the Lady Raiders elsewhere.

“You can’t put everything on Kierra’s back,” Tech senior Jordan Murphree said. “You have to notice the things that she does on the defensive end — rebounding and pulling the people in for me to be able to shoot those 3s. I wouldn’t be that wide open if she wasn’t down there.”

Tech head coach Kristy Curry said she would like to see Mallard step up in other areas and that she can’t “measure her entire being on half-court offensive success.”

Turnover trouble
Turnovers remain a main area of concern for Tech coach Kristy Curry and the Lady Raiders after they gave up the ball 22 times against UCLA.

The team has turned the ball over at least 19 times in three of its last four games. That’s a problem Curry said needs to be fixed as soon as possible, preferably before Big 12 Conference play begins in January.

The Lady Raiders had trouble in transition and made mental mistakes when UCLA applied full-court pressure in the first half.

“We’re a young team and I think that’s what UCLA wanted us to do,” Tech’s Jordan Murphree said. “Once we slowed down and stopped playing at their pace, I think that helped us out. It was what we were doing to ourselves. A lot of the things were our own turnovers, throwing it long to people, dribbling off our feet, traveling.”

$3 tickets, anyone?
General admission tickets for Monday’s game against Mercer at United Spirit Arena are available for just $3 at the Texas Tech Athletic Ticket Office or at the arena on game day. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Tech men’s team is offering the same promotion for its home game against Stanford at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Compiled by David Just

NACOGDOCHES – It had been almost two seasons since Texas Tech won a men’s basketball game on the road. That changed with Tuesday’s 63-61 victory at Stephen F. Austin.

Tech coach Pat Knight said the narrow margin in the final score – Tech led by 16 points before letting SFA back into it – will be a good lesson for his team once conference play begins.

“It’s huge. They say you can’t take anybody lightly on the road, even after you built a big lead you think it’s over, but they’re able to hang on like that,” he said. “We got down early, came back, got the lead, got a big lead, let them back in. It will help us prepare for the Big 12.”

Ray returns

Sophomore forward Corbin Ray saw his first minutes of the season on Tuesday.

Ray missed Tech’s first five games after suffering a concussion in the team’s scrimmage against New Mexico State.

On Tuesday he recorded one assist in five minutes of playing time.

Support for Singletary

Mike Singletary had a large contingent of support inside William R. Johnson Coliseum. The junior forward from Tech grew up in Humble, about 125 miles from Nacogdoches outside Houston. He said approximately 10 family members and friends had made the trip to Stephen F. Austin to watch him play.

Singletary finished with nine points and six rebounds.

To Darko, with love

A group of Stephen F. Austin fans brought signs to the game with plans to torment various Tech players. One dedicated to forward Darko Cohadarevic read “Darko: Your mom hates you” in the senior’s native language.

At least, that’s what they thought.

The students said they had assumed Cohadarevic was Russian, and had looked up the Cyrillic spelling of their taunt.

Cohadarevic couldn’t read the message, though, because he speaks Serbian. He did, however, pick up the poster after the game as a memento from his career night.

Quote of the game

“After I hit the 17-foot jumper, I thought for a second, they’re not guarding me. Then after I got the post move under them they fouled me and I realized they cannot guard me low because I’m technically sound. I realized I’ve got to post up. Later on I got lost a little bit, I posted up too much, and the coaches wanted me to down screen away, down screen, flare screen to get other guys open, but I got caught up in posting up too much. I can take the blame for them catching up our 15-point lead because of that.”

- Tech forward Darko Cohadarevic, on the weaknesses in his game Tuesday.

Compiled by Courtney Linehan

Nick Okorie’s 19-point performance against Lamar on Saturday came at a price for the Texas Tech senior: He lost a tooth in the game.

Okorie was playing some on-ball defense in the second half, when a Lamar player pivoted and knocked him square in the jaw. The blow split Okorie’s lip open and cracked off a hunk of his third molar.

Naturally, the officials called timeout for an injury, Okorie subbed out, and went straight to the dentist to have his broken tooth rebuilt, right? Not hardly. Okorie reached in his mouth and fished out the loose tooth, chucked off the court, swallowed the blood that was filling his mouth, and kept on playing. He even hit a 3-pointer on Tech’s next possession.

“We had a TV timeout so they just cleaned me up, cleaned it out, and looked at it after the game,” Okorie said.

Now Okorie, who participated in the team’s light practice Sunday morning, will wait until Wednesday to see a dentist about rebuilding the damaged molar. He did not receive stitches on his lip; team medical staff looked at the cut and told him the mouth heals itself so quickly stitches would be irrelevant.

He doesn’t know what happened to the piece of tooth the broke off, but says he’s having no trouble chewing and his speech is only slightly altered from the injury.

“They looked at it, but they said as long as it’s not sensitive and it doesn’t really hurt, it’s OK,” he said.

Team hopes record drives attendance

Defeating Lamar made Tech 5-0 on the season, and the Red Raiders are hoping it catches the attention of certain fans.

They’re hoping more fans begin attending games as they notice Tech basketball’s winning ways.

“It’s helped us from the point that we can get the fans here,” guard John Roberson said. “They see we’re getting better.

“We’re perfect so far, we just have to keep it going.”

Lamar coach praises Raiders

Steve Roccaforte has played against Texas Tech since before Pat Knight took over as head coach. His Cardinals even defeated the Red Raiders in 2008. But the Lamar coach said he’s never seen a Tech team as athletic as this season’s.

“I think his team this year is much improved,” Roccaforte said. “I think they are much more athletic. They’re playing a little different style, and
I think it suits his personnel a whole heck of a lot better.”

Roccaforte said Tech looks much more deliberate in its actions on the court. He said it looks like the Raiders have a plan on offense, knowing not only how to run the motion offense but how to use it to get the ball to certain players in certain spots on the court.

“I don’t think they’re playing as careless and as reckless as they did last year,” Roccaforte said. “They really pushed the ball last year, they were taking a lot of shots off of one pass.

“I think they’re deeper, more athletic, and they’re playing a style more suited to their personnel.”

- Compiled by Courtney Linehan

On Dec. 13, 2008, Texas Tech traveled to Beaumont for what should have been an easy win against Lamar.

Instead, the Red Raiders walked away with an 85-79 loss.

Tech forward Mike Singletary said after Thursday’s 94-75 win against Northwestern State that this year’s rematch will be all about payback, a fact he’s certain the Cardinals already know well.

“They have tapes of us from last year and they’re going to come in thinking ‘Oh, it’s the same team as last year, just a few different guys,’ but we’re a different team this year,” Singletary said. “We’re going to set the tone on Saturday. As I said, it’s going to be a payback game, and I think we’re ready for it.”

Alan Voskuil led the 2008 Red Raiders with 19 points, while John Roberson had 18 and D’walyn Roberts had 14. Tech trailed 34-32 at the half. Lamar made 68 percent of its second-half buckets, while Tech made just 39.5 percent.

It’s given the Raiders perspective on what could happen Saturday.

“We expect they’re going to come in and try to get a good team at home,” Singletary said. “They’re going to come in and play hard.”

Roberson’s defense

John Roberson averaged 10.3 points per game heading into Thursday night. Against Northwestern State, though, the junior point guard scored just 4 points on 2-of-9 shooting. Twice in the first half he tried for a 3-pointer from the right elbow, but when the shot wouldn’t fall he began dishing out assists.

Knight said it was a sign Roberson is maturing

“In the past when his shot wasn’t falling, he tended to mope a little bit,” Knight said. “(Thursday) he just kept playing. I thought he was great. It wasn’t like he was taking bad shots. There’s going to be nights, I don’t care how good of a scorer you are, it’s going to go in and out. But if you play defense I’ll keep you in the game.”

Follow instructions

Knight gave the team two instructions before Thursday’s game:

1. Don’t give up any 3-pointers.

2. Don’t let Northwestern State dribble the full length of the court.

“So what did the kid do?” Knight said in reference to a late-game play by the Cardinals. “He dribbled the full length of the floor and then a minute later he got an open three.”

Knight said he was disappointed not for the five points Tech lost, but because the team stopped playing defense when it thought the game was won.

“Kids have to learn you don’t just coach to the scoreboard, you don’t play to the scoreboard,” Knight said. “You’ve got to play to the end.

After losing 91-53 to the Lady Vols on Tuesday, Curry said she still thinks Tech will get more positive than negative out of the game.

“It’s the right steps to take as we try to take Tech back to where we want it to be,” Curry said. “It’s about getting better every day, and we’ll be better for today.”

Curry spoke extensively after the game about building a program around the core group of young players her staff has added the past two seasons. She pointed to sophomore forward Kierra Mallard and freshman guard Monique Smalls as examples of Tech’s potential.

But she said the rebuilding process is gradual.

“We’re just trying to put the wheels back on the bus one wheel at a time,” Curry said.

Ladies in the locker room

The Tennessee women’s basketball team is homeless-sort of.

It has been almost nine months since the Lady Vols were allowed in their own locker room. After losing 66-56 at Kentucky last February, coach Pat Summitt took her team out of its cozy home locker room and made the players take up residence in a smaller visitor locker room at their home arena.

Summitt said Tuesday her team has not yet earned the right to return.

“I told them they had to win something big,” Summitt said. ‘We’ve got a couple games left here. We’ll see what they do and hopefully we’ll be back.”

Struggling seniors

Three Texas Tech seniors played on Tuesday, and all three struggled at times during the game.

Jordan Murphree went 1-of-10 from the field. Ashlee Roberson was 1-of-7 and finished with just three points. Timilia Martin had five points, but she and Roberson both had 1-to-2 assist-to-turnover ratios.

Tennessee honed in on starters Murphree and Roberson early in the game, and Curry said it led to their struggles on the court.

“I was disappointed those two seniors were 0-10 at halftime,” Curry said. “Give Tennessee credit for that.”

Bits and pieces

Tennessee’s size in the post really showed on offense; the Lady Vols outscored the Lady Raiders 38-22 in the paint …Tennessee also had more than twice the rebounds Tech did, winning the battled of the boards 49-28.

Compiled by Courtney Linehan

The Texas Tech women’s basketball team has added commitment No. 2 for the 2010-11 season.

Antiesha Brown from Clovis, N.M., has given an oral commitment to the Lady Raiders, according to N.M. Heat Elite coach Robert Sanchez.

Monterey standout Haley Schneider orally committed to Tech in March.

Sanchez said Brown, a 5-foot-10 guard/forward, chose Tech after looking at Kansas and New Mexico, as well. Her club team coach also said the Lady Raiders landed a player who may have slipped through the recruiting cracks.

“They stole one,” Sanchez said. “I think Tech has phenomenal facilities and a great coaching staff. It’s a program that’s successful. … She fits right in because she’s a person who not only excels on the basketball court but in the classroom, too.”

Brown was named to the New Mexico Coaches Association Class 5A all-state second team as a junior this season after leading Clovis to the state quarterfinals and was the team’s leading scorer, averaging nearly 20 points per game.

Brown has been a three-sport athlete in basketball, volleyball and track for most of her three years at Clovis. She placed second at the state track and field championships in the long jump (17 feet, 41/4 inches) and third in the triple jump (34-111/4). She also owns the school record in the triple jump (38 feet).

And she’s only 16 years old. Brown was moved up a grade level because of her academics.

“I think that’s something that kind of sets her apart from a lot of other athletes around the country,” Sanchez said. “If you take the whole package, she can not only play athletically in the Big 12 (Conference) but maybe even blow past a lot of them. She has a tremendous midrange game right now and great pull-up jump shot.”

Brown primarily played at the post position for her high school team but was mostly a guard or perimeter player on Sanchez’s club team. He said she has all the versatility to be an outstanding player at either spot and if she continues to develop once she gets to Tech, could be someone playing long after her collegiate career is over.

“She’s such a tremendous athlete. It would not surprise me one bit if she makes a lot of money later on playing this game professionally,” he said. “She’s just that good.”

Oral commitments are non-binding, and per NCAA rules, college coaches are not allowed to comment on players until they sign a national letter of intent.

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