Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Athletics
Texas
Lady Raiders Defeated In Big 12 Championship
March 15, 2003 | Women's Basketball
March 15, 2003
By JOEL ANDERSON
Associated Press Writer
DALLAS - Stacy Stephens scored 16 points and No. 5 Texas hit all six of its free throws in the final two minutes to beat No. 8 Texas Tech 67-57 Saturday night, giving the Longhorns their first Big 12 Conference tournament title.
Texas (25-5) trailed most of the game and was down by nine points with just under 14 minutes left, looking nothing like the team that came in with a 12-game winning streak.
But Stephens and frontcourt teammate Heather Schreiber began dominating the paint, and the Longhorns went on a 16-3 run to seize control of the game.
Stephens was selected MVP of the tournament and Schreiber was named to the first team.
Erin Grant scored 18 points to lead the Red Raiders (26-5), who lost in the Big 12 final for the first time. They won the title in 1998 and '99.
Texas won its 10th conference title, the first nine coming in the now-defunct Southwest Conference.
A tournament-record crowd of 10,717 turned out at Reunion Arena to see the latest chapter in this in-state showdown. The Longhorns swept the regular-season series, the first time that's happened since 1991. A few weeks later that season, the Red Raiders beat Texas in the SWC tournament semifinals.
Poor shooting plagued Texas Tech this time. It shot 27 percent in the second half and scored 19 points - the team's lowest total in a half this season.
Stephens, who was averaging 23.5 points and 13.5 rebounds in first two games of the tournament, was mostly ineffective in first half. Long-armed Tech forward Jolee Ayers forced her to post up outside the key and take awkward shots over taller defenders. Stephens went 1-of-4 from the field and picked up her second foul with about five minutes left in the half. Texas coach Jody Conradt left her on the bench for the rest of the half.
Stephens had her first shot of the second half blocked, and the Longhorns committed turnovers on their first three possessions. But slowly they worked themselves back into the game, and Nina Norman started the game-clinching spurt with a layup.
Schreiber scored six straight points, then Stephens scored the next eight points on a variety of smooth low-post moves. Texas senior guard Tai Dillard finished the run with a short jumper to put the Longhorns ahead 57-51, and they didn't surrender the lead again.
While Texas gets the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, the Red Raiders are assured an at-large bid. But neither has a realistic shot at a No. 1 seed. Tech will host first- and second-round games in the tournament.
The Red Raiders played without starting guard Natalie Ritchie, who had a concussion late in a semifinal win over Kansas State. Ritchie was replaced in the lineup by junior Casey Jackson.
Ritchie should be able to return in time for the NCAA tournament, Sharp said.
