Coming off their worst loss of the season, the Lady Raiders
will try and snap a four-game skid against Kansas tonight.
“You don’t look back, I mean it’s positive, it’s about
preparing,” Texas Tech head coach Kristy Curry said. “Again, I just don’t sit
around and think about the negative, I try to focus on the positive. I’m always
going to tell you how it is.”
No. 21/23 Tech (14-4, 2-4 in Big 12 Conference play) faces
an up and coming Kansas Women’s Basketball program tonight with first tip at 7
p.m. inside Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks (15-3, 4-2) enter the game coming off a loss to
No. 13 Texas A&M on Saturday and despite the loss, Kansas guard Angel Goodrich went off in the game scoring a career-high 28 points.
Goodrich is third on the team averaging 12.7 points per game
this season, and second on the team in conference play averaging 14.5 per game.
But the player to mindful for against the Jayhawks is junior
Carolyn Davis, who is leading the team in scoring for the second straight
season.
Davis is averaging 17.6 points per game overall and 18
points per game in conference play.
But despite all the success this season and posting a 15-3
record which is good for second in the conference only to No. 1 Baylor, the
Jayhawks have yet to break into the Top 25 this season in either the Associated
Press Poll of USA Today/ ESPN Coaches Poll.
While the Jayhawks have been left out of the rankings, Tech
climbed all the way to No. 10 in the country following a 14-0 start just two
weeks ago.
But in the two weeks since the squads highest ranking since
2005, the Lady Raiders have dropped four games in a row to Oklahoma, Kansas State, No. 1 Baylor and most recently a 66-49 loss to
Iowa State in Ames, Iowa.
During the stretch it has been different things that have hurt
the Lady Raiders, Curry said, but they have to move on and only focus on what
they can affect.
“I think it’s been something different each opportunity
we’ve had,” she said. “Whether it’s missed free throws, or missed box out here
or there or 50-50 ball, and (Sunday) was a range of different events. But again
it’s about staying positive and focusing on being better today. I feel like we
got better today, and that’s what we can control is today.”
During the stretch turnovers has been one of the issues as
Tech turned the ball over 16 times against Oklahoma, and 14 against Kansas
State making it 30 turnovers in two games.
Another issue was not getting players consistently
performing, which came out in the Iowa State loss the most as Monique Smalls
scored 13 points, and no other Lady Raider reached double digits.
With the way the team started and now the recent struggles
junior guard Christine Hyde said the biggest problem for the team has just been
losing focus.
“The difference is we lost sight of our goal,” she said.
“Now that we sat down, we spoke with each other, went over film, we regained
sight of what we’re trying to achieve. I guess that’s what we need to continue
to look at and not forget our goal.”
The Lady Raiders will arguably have to get back on the
winning side of things, it Tech wants to find itself still in the Top 25 next
week and also stop their slide down the Big 12 standings.
Tech was second in the conference only two weeks ago before
the Baylor game, and now sits seventh in the league.
Losing is not fun for the team, Hyde said, and they haven’t
forgot what winning is like but they need to get back on track.
“No, but we hate losing more than we like winning,” she
said. “You can always forget what winning feels like, but you never forget what
losing feels like. But I guess what we’re trying to do is get back on track on
winning.”