Texas Tech sports news roundup: Big day for soccer, Lady Raiders roll on, more

Here is your Texas Tech sports news roundup for November 22, 2024.

Texas Tech soccer to face No. 1 Duke in NCAA Tournament

Tonight, the Texas Tech soccer program will face No. 1 seed Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The game will take place in Durham, North Carolina, and will be a homecoming for head coach Tom Stone who played college soccer for Duke.

Meeting the Blue Devils for the first time in program history, Tech could face Texas in the third round if the Red Raiders win and the Longhorns beat Michigan State. Of course, that would take quite the upset from Stone's team.

Duke is 15-2-1 on the season and 9-1-1 at home. They have lost only once since falling to Ohio State on August 15.

This will be the first true NCAA Tournament road game for Texas Tech since 2016. Fortunately, Tech has been good away from Lubbock this year having won five true road games in a row.

The game begins at 5:30 p.m. Central. It can be seen on ESPN+.

Texas Tech Lady Raiders remain undefeated

The Texas Tech Lady Raiders remained perfect for the 2024-25 season by taking down Abilene Christian 66-40 on Tuesday night in Lubbock. It was the 22nd non-conference home win for the program.

A 23-point performance from junior Adlee Blacklock led the way for head coach Krista Gerlich's team. The junior guard from Lubbock drilled six 3-pointers for the game.

Sophomore Jalynn Bristow added 9 points and junior Jasmine Shavers had a great all-around game with 8 points, 5 assists, and 5 steals.

After a 14-14 first quarter, the Lady Raiders ramped up the defense from there winning the second quarter 16-2. After that, they cruised to the win. However, Gerlich wasn't all that impressed with the win.

"First, that was a very ugly win," she said. "but we will definitely take it. I was really glad to see the ball go in the basket for these two kids [Adlee Blacklock and Jalynn Bristow], particularly, but for our entire team… We have not been shooting the basketball well, and it took us a little while to get going, but I thought that Adlee certainly came in and gave us some breathing room, got us some confidence, and then we shot the ball pretty well after that.

"Obviously, ball security is a huge thing. We're not doing a good job with that, and we've got to address it immediately. Then, also just offensive rebounds… We've got to address that immediately as well. But I do think that we're defending at a high clip. I feel like we're understanding our game plan. We're definitely keeping them out of the paint. I thought that we did a great job defending the 3-point line from them tonight, because they're a really good 3-point shooting team. But, we've got to continue to limit second chance opportunities, and that's giving up offensive rebounds and then turning the basketball over. So, when we figure out those two things, I think this team has a chance to be pretty special."

The Lady Raiders return to action tomorrow when they host New Orleans at 2 p.m.

Tahj Brooks named semifinalist for prestigious national award

This week, Texas Tech senior running back Tahj Brooks was named a semifinalist for the Doak Walker Award which is given annually to the nation's top running back. It is the second year in a row that he's been a semifinalist for this award.

In total, 10 running backs from across the country were named semifinalists with four from the Big 12 Conference. Brooks was joined by the likes of DJ Giddens of Kansas State, Omarion Hampton of North Carolina, RJ Harvey of UCF, Makhi Hughes of Tulane, Ashton Jeanty of Boise State, Kaleb Johnson of Iowa, Dylan Sampson of Tennessee, Cam Skattebo of Arizona State and Brashard Smith of SMU.

Of course, the last time we saw Brooks in action, he broke the Texas Tech school record for career rushing yards. Brooks now has 4,236 rushing yards over his career as he also ranks fifth in Big 12 history.

Gino Garcia named semifinalist for Lou Groza Award

Also this week, another Texas Tech football player, Gino Garcia, was named a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award which is awarded each season to the best kicker in the country. He is one of 20 kickers still in the running for the award.

Making 15 of his 16 field goal attempts this year, he's hitting at a 93.7% clip. That is despite the fact that Tech utilized a strange kicking rotation where Garcia has essentially alternated field goal and extra-point attempts with Reese Burkhardt for most of the season.

In the FBS, there are only seven kickers who are converting 90% or more of their field goals this season. Each was named a Groza Award semifinalist.

Finalists for the award will be announced on November 26. The winner will be named on December 9th.