In a 69-40 victory against Savannah State, Texas Tech women’s basketball broke a school record by turning the ball over just two times in the game.

The previous record was five, accomplished twice in Tech history. The Lady Raiders turned the ball over five times against Texas A&M on Jan. 31, 1983, and again against Texas-San Antonio on Nov. 14, 2003.

Tech entered the game with the most turnovers in the Big 12 Conference and an average of 20.2 per game.

On Saturday, the Lady Raiders turned the ball over just once per half.

“We’ve been averaging too many turnovers a game and once we get to Big 12 Conference (play) that’s going to hurt us,” said Jordan Murphree, who scored a game-high 16 points, including four 3-pointers.

Tech (12-2) will open conference play on the road against Oklahoma on Saturday.

Nine Lady Raiders scored, with three in double figures. Ashlee Roberson, who was left out of the starting lineup for undisclosed disciplinary reasons, scored 14 points. Chynna Brown came off the bench and tacked on a career-high 13 points.

Tech has struggled against zone defenses this season, but showed resilience against the Lady Tigers (8-9).

“I brought as much energy as I could,” Brown said. “Most of all just tried to remember each player if they go left or right, matching up each player from the scouting report and being aggressive.”

Despite the quality of Tech’s offensive and defensive effort, the Lady Tigers kept the game close through most of the first half.

Savannah State was down just two points when Courtney Long sunk a layup at the 4:56 mark to put the Tigers down 27-25.

Long scored a team-high 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting.

But it was all Lady Raiders the rest of the way.

Five different players scored for Tech to close out the half on a 10-0 run. Tech entered the break with a 37-25 lead and didn’t slow down.

Murphree and Tilmila Martin hit 3-pointers in the early part of the second half. Within five minutes, Tech had built its lead to 20.

The Lady Raiders showed improvement in every area where Curry wants growth. Even though they were out-rebounded overall, they snared more offensive rebounds than the Lady Tigers.

Jordan Barncastle had a lot to do with that. She swatted several missed shots back to the key that Tech guards were able to grab before resetting the offense.

“It’s not something that we teach,” Curry said of Barncastle’s rebound passes. “I think she was just trying to be aggressive, and when you’re aggressive good things happen. I’d rather see her grab it and go back up with it. But if she can’t grab it, at least she’s just trying to put forth some effort to get it.”

The overall performance was one the Lady Raiders hope to replicate in the coming weeks during the conference season. 

 “I definitely think we proved tonight that we can hold teams under 40 and limit our turnovers, and I thought we shot the ball well,” Murphree said. “I think that’s a good start or us going into Big 12 Conference.”

To comment on this story:
courtney.linehan@lubbockonline.com l 766-8735
terry.greenberg@lubbockonline.com  l 766-8700