Texas Tech Athletics
West Virginia
Texas Tech Comes Back To Win in OT at WVU
January 22, 2013 | Women's Basketball
Christine Hyde scored 19 points and hit 9 of 10 from the charity stripe.
Jan. 22, 2013
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. -- It took an extra five minutes, but Texas Tech took full advantage, hitting key free throws down the stretch and crashing the boards after halftime to beat West Virginia on the road, 77-73 in overtime at WVU Coliseum on Tuesday night.
Senior Christine Hyde led three Lady Raiders in double figures with 19 points. Monique Smalls added 17 and Chynna Brown turned in 16 - her sixth time in double figures in seven games.
"We felt coming in that we were very similar and had very similar styles," Texas Tech head coach Kristy Curry said. "We were just fortunate to make a few more plays down the stretch. But they're a great basketball team and, like I said, we were just fortunate to make a few more plays."
The win matches the most conference road wins (three) in a season for Texas Tech under head coach Kristy Curry as the Lady Raiders are off to their best start in Big 12 Conference play in eight years.
Tech (15-4, 5-2 Big 12) trailed by as many as 12 in the second half after entering the locker room down 38-29 and getting beat 24-13 on the boards.
The Lady Raiders toughened up on the boards and used a 14-3 run outta the gate to get within one before trading leads nine more times in the final period. Tech would outrebound West Virginia 26-14 the rest of the way while hitting 15 of 20 free throws from the line, led by Hyde's career-high 9 of 10 performance from the charity stripe.
Smalls also was successful in the overtime period, hitting 4 of 5 free throws to close out the win. She ended the night going 10 of 12 from the line and scoring her highest total in Big 12 play this season.
"We were tired last year of losing games and then going back to the stat sheet and seeing that if we made our free throws, we could have won," Hyde said. "So an emphasis this year was to make our free throws because it is the difference in the game."
Another big difference maker was redshirt junior Shauntal Nobles in the final minutes.
Nobles stayed in the majority of the final minutes after junior forward Kelsi Baker fouled out with 3:14 to play. She hit a baseline jumper to keep Tech within striking distance of West Virginia and then grabbed a Smalls layup attempt off the floor to get the putback with seven seconds left and send the game to overtime.
"It was huge tonight," Curry said about the way Nobles played. "I thought our bench in the first half was horrendous and I thought in the second half it was absolutely awesome. (Amber) Battle and Nobles really stepped up off the bench for us in the second half, I thought."
Tech will host TCU at 12 p.m. CT Sunday. The game will be broadcast nationally on FOX Sports Net.
