LUBBOCK, Texas (texastech.com) - After being down by 16 points in the first half, the Texas Tech women's basketball team fought back to get a three-point win, 80-77, over Houston in the first round of the Postseason Women's NIT on Thursday night at the United Spirit Arena.
The first half belonged to Houston (17-15) from the beginning as it opened the game scoring the first seven points. Tech (18-14) didn't score its first points until the 16:34 mark when Monique Smalls hit two free throws. The Lady Raiders didn't hit their first field goal until Ashlee Roberson made a layup with 12:27 to go in the half. The Cougars got up by as many as 16 points twice in that period, the last coming at 34-18 with 5:35 to go. From there, Tech went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to nine. Tech got within seven points on a jumper by Marissa Ashton at the 2:18 mark and again on another jumper by Ashton with 1:32 to play.
Houston led 37-39 at the break.
The last 20 minutes were a different story for the Lady Raiders. The Cougars scored the opening basket of the half to go up by 10 as Brittany Mason hit a jumper at 19:41. Tech responded by going on a 10-4 run over the next three and a half minutes to cut the lead to four at 43-39. Houston's Roxana Button nailed a three-pointer at 15:12 to give the Cougars a 46-39 advantage.
The Lady Raiders momentum continued as they outscored Houston 10-2 in a three-minute time span and took its first lead of the game on a jumper by Roberson to put Tech up 49-48 with 12:13 left in the contest. Houston scored again at 11:26 on a jumper by Mason to take back the lead at 50-49. Over the next three minutes, Tech scored 10-straight points to go up by nine points, 59-50. Houston started to make a comeback as it cut the Lady Raiders' lead to two, 66-64, when Porsche Landry made a jumper with 2:26 remaining. The last two minutes of the game Houston got within one point four times, including seven seconds left in the game. The Lady Raiders connected on 13-straight free throws over the span of three minutes and 44 seconds to keep the lead the rest of the contest. Jordan Barncastle drained four of those free throws in the last 13 seconds for Tech to hang on to claim the three-point victory.
Tech had four players finish in double figures led by a career-high 16 points for Christine Hyde. Barncastle finished with 12 points and Roberson and Ashton both had 11 points apiece. Kierra Mallard grabbed 11 rebounds, while Smalls dished out six assists.
The Lady Raiders shot 36.4 percent (20-55) from the field to Houston's 45.5 percent (30-66). Tech outrebounded the Cougars 46-34.
On the night, Tech hit 36-of-47 free throw attempts for 76.6 percent. Both free throws made and attempted were a season high for the Lady Raiders.
Tech advances to the second round of the WNIT and will face the winner of the Nevada at Wyoming game, which will be played on Friday night. At the conclusion of that game, a date and location of the second round game will be determined. Second round games will be played sometime between March 20-24.