Texas Tech women's basketball handles Sam Houston State in front of 13K for 'Education Day'
The Texas Tech women's basketball team gave the United Supermarkets Arena crowd plenty to cheer about Tuesday afternoon.
And cheer they did.
With more than 13,000 in attendance for their annual "Education Day," the Lady Raiders handled Sam Houston State 68-55 in a deafening matinee environment. The result pushed Tech's winning streak to seven games, but no other had the support of around 9,100 elementary and middle-school students from the Lubbock area.
The 13,306 fans Tuesday made up the largest crowd at a Lady Raiders home game since March 1, 2006 against No. 1 Oklahoma. The presence was felt by Tech, which fended off the feisty Bearkats after a tight start. Lady Raiders coach Krista Gerlich joked the screaming youngsters contributed to the "free-throw line defense" that caused SHSU to shoot 8 of 20.
"I'm so proud of how much West Texas supports women's basketball, but also Texas Tech," Gerlich said. "For all those kids to be here, I just want to thank all those school districts for sending their kids and their teachers. And I want to thank the teachers for keeping those kids in check, bless their hearts. Man, they were fantastic."
The Lady Raiders (8-1) scored the final seven points of the first quarter, which stretched to an 18-2 run in the next period. After shooting 4 of 7 from 3-point range in the opening frame, SHSU (3-5) missed all three attempts over the next 10 minutes. That contributed to a 37-24 halftime lead for Tech.
The Bearkats shot 31.7% for the game and committed 22 turnovers. It was the third-straight game the Lady Raiders forced more than 20.
SHSU never got closer than 12 points, with Tech's advantage reaching as high as 17.
"I didn't think they ever had any strong runs against us," Gerlich said, "where we felt like the lead was in jeopardy. However, I did think that in the third quarter we did let them hang around a little bit, instead of expanding our lead. And that's one of the things. When you have a lead going into halftime, the first three minutes are so important that you continue to expand and not let a team like Sam Houston back in."
Two days after four Tech players scored at least eight points, but none more than 11, four reached double figures. Off the bench, Jazmaine Lewis scored 13 of her game-high 17 points in the second half. Rhyle McKinney and Bre'Amber Scott added 15 apiece, while Jasmine Shavers posted 12.
It was a career-high for Lewis, the Houston transfer who also nabbed seven rebounds.
"We're seeing what she can do for us, in really an efficient amount of time," Gerlich said. "To be able to get to 17 and seven in 12 minutes is pretty good, so imagine when she's going to stay on the floor longer what that's going to look like."
Scott corralled 10 boards for her first career double-double. Gerlich was pleased to see the rebounding effort from her guard, who also had three assists and three steals.
"We've been challenging all of our kids for somebody to get double-digit rebounds," Gerlich said. "For it to be Bre I think is fantastic."
The Lady Raiders are off until a Dec. 14 matchup with Oral Roberts. That's the halfway point of Tech's eight-game homestand, which concludes with the Big 12 Conference opener against Iowa State. Gerlich said the team will get two days of rest following the stretch of three games in six days.
"I like the fact that we pushed through," Gerlich said, "that we were able to come away with three wins in the last week. But now it's time for them to take a mental break to try to focus on their academics a little bit."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech women's basketball beats Sam Houston State on Education Day
