Wednesday evening was ROUGH for the Texas Tech Lady Raiders. In a midweek matchup for the Texas Tech women’s basketball team, the Iowa State Cyclones traveled down to Lubbock and absolutely bullied the Lady Raiders in the paint.
Quite simply, the Lady Raiders just weren’t able to keep up with Iowa State or slow the Cyclones down at all. Thus, a 14-point loss that yielded a number of alarming moments for the Texas Tech women’s basketball team.
Here’s a few numbers that concerned me a bit from Texas Tech’s 84-70 loss to the Cyclones:
No. 1: Texas Tech led for exactly ZERO seconds in the entirety of the Lady Raiders’ matchup with Iowa State
You’re probably not going to win many games in which you’re not able to lead for a single second. And well, Texas Tech certainly didn't win this one (again, the Lady Raiders lost to Iowa State by a total of 14 points).
To Texas Tech’s credit, at least the Cyclones didn’t lead throughout the absolute entirety of the game against the Lady Raiders.
They only led for 38 minutes and 23 seconds. No big deal.
The fact that Texas Tech was playing from behind for basically the entire game is a little worrisome. There were a few moments where it looked like the Lady Raiders would be able to really get back into this game, but that fizzled out after halftime.
No. 2: The Lady Raiders had a ton of foul trouble against Iowa State
It’s not that the Iowa State Cyclones didn’t commit any fouls, but it’s clear that the Texas Tech Lady Raiders committed more AND the Lady Raiders also ran into the issue where one of their start players wasn’t able to get out on the court as much as Texas Tech needed her to due to foul trouble.
And in fact, Bailey Maupin ended up fouling out against the Cyclones. Then there’s the fact that Jalynn Bristow had four fouls, Denae Fritz had four fouls, and Snudda Collins had four fouls.
As a team, Texas Tech had 26 fouls. Iowa State had 19. And as a team, the Cyclones managed to drain 15 of their 22 free throw attempts. In a 14-point loss, that feels noteworthy.
No. 3: Audi Crooks singlehandedly outscored the entirety of Texas Tech’s point production
Okay look, Audi Crooks is really good at this whole basketball thing. And unfortunately, Texas Tech had no real answer for her. And even worse, the Lady Raiders were completely and totally unable to get into the paint and score.
Crooks led all scorers in the game with 33 points, which was more than double the number of points that Texas Tech scored in the paint (14, just 14, that’s it, it’s not great).
And yeah, that’s a huge reason for the Lady Raiders losing this game.
Texas Tech is still in decent shape overall and there’s still plenty of time for the Lady Raiders to get this season back on track, but losing three of the last four matchups (and losing in some truly disappointing ways) doesn’t exactly make me feel great about where this team is at this particular moment in time. Maybe a win over TCU would help me feel better?