Texas Tech University Athletics
Lady Raiders Get Another Chance to Think National Championship
June 21, 1999 | Women's Basketball
March 12, 1999
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP)-- For the second straight season, Texas Tech won the Big 12 championship. Now the Lady Raiders look to erase the memory of last season's painful NCAA tournament.
Second-seeded Texas Tech (28-3) begins its march toward what it hopes will be another national title when it meets No. 15 Stephen F. Austin (17-11) on Saturday in the opening round of the Midwest sub-regional.
The game will be played in Lubbock, where the Lady Raiders have dominated, winning 113 of their last 120 games.
Last season, the Lady Raiders won their first Big 12 title but absorbed a bitter loss to Notre Dame in the second round of the tournament. Star center Angie Braziel says the team has no excuse if it fails to produce under pressure this year.
"This is it," said Braziel, who leads the team with 20 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. "This is what you hope for, but are never guaranteed - a second chance to show what you've got."
Braziel was named a second team All-America this week.
Besides Braziel, Texas Tech will count on senior guard Rene Hanebutt, who has averaged 18.8 points, hit 23 3-point field goals, shot 42 percent from 3-point range, and grabbed 5.2 rebounds over the last five games.
The fact that Stephen F. Austin is competing in the postseason is nothing short of brave. The Ladyjacks are still stunned from the Jan. 18 suicide of 23-year-old Katrina Price, a graduate student who was also the school's all-time leading scorer.
Despite the shock, the Ladyjacks won 10 of their final 12 regular-season games, including a victory over Northwestern State to win the Southland Conference title.
"I don't know if we'll ever be 100 percent over it," coach Royce Chadwick said of Price's death. "But it doesn't possess us like it did at one time. You lay down at night and you can't sleep and when you finally do get over it, you wake up and before you get out from the covers, you're thinking about it again."
Stephen F. Austin will again look to senior forward Anitra Davis, who averages 19.8 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.
Seventh-seeded Mississippi State or No. 10 North Carolina State will await the winner in the second round.
