Texas Tech Athletics
West Virginia
Tech Falls in First Round of Big 12 Championship
March 07, 2015 | Women's Basketball
March 6, 2015
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DALLAS -- The number six will be the number Texas Tech remembers for the next eight months leading into the 2015-16 season.
Six losses that ended the 2014-15 season. Then there were six games that were within reach in the final minutes of play. If any one of those had resulted in a win, the season would still be going.
"We had five to six close games in Big 12 where it came down to one possession," Tech head coach Candi Whitaker said. "You need one more game, so how valuable a possession is, how valuable each game is for one game to keep you from continuing your season. I think for our returners, they need to hurt from that and they need to understand the value of a possession."
Ivonne CookTaylor scored 20 points but West Virginia used a big second half run to outlast Texas Tech and take control with a 59-40 win on Friday in the first round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship.
Tech (15-16) finishes the season just under the postseason qualifying mark of .500. The Lady Raiders stayed with West Virginia for most of the first half and tied the game up at 27-27 in the opening minutes of the second half after trailing 27-24 at the break.
But then West Virginia (18-13) took control when leading scorer Bria Holmes hit two, bank-shot 3-pointers to ignite a 23-6 run over the next eight minutes while Tech hit just 2 of 15 from the field and missed eight shots at the free-throw line.
"We really struggled offensively and just to get some shots to go," Whitaker said. "We needed to take care of the ball better than we did and obviously convert at the free throw line."
The season, though cut short at the conference tournament once again, was a major improvement from last year's 6-24 record. Tech will have 10 returning players, including five players that started games and seven who saw significant playing time this season.
"I thought we improved in a lot of ways," Whitaker said. "Nonconference, we had to win a lot of close games without Amber (Battle), so I felt like our team grew from that and learned from that. We found ways to win there. Continued to get better and evolve and it's been fun to watch them improve."
