The Lady Raiders finished the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Invitational with a
66-48 win over Oregon State on Friday to finish the trip to Vegas splitting
their two contests.
This probably could have even been a more lopsided victory had it not
been for laying it all out the day before in the hard fought overtime loss to
Michigan State.
Tech led OSU 38-16 at the half and looked really good at both ends of the
floor. The shooting percentages in the first 20 minutes pretty much tells
the story with Tech shooting 46% while Oregon State was at 21%.
Kelsi Baker really showed how dangerous she can
be both from the perimeter and with her quickness. When OSU post players
gave her space, she knocked down the outside shot over them, including her
first three pointer of the season coming in the first half.
Later,
they came out on her and she blew right by the bigger, slower post
defenders. Jackie Patterson also
got off to a nice start with 8 first half points.
Nobody got into much of a groove in the second half but that, I think, is
excusable based on Thursday's 45-minute battle with Michigan State where three
players logged at least 40 minutes of playing time.
Monique Smalls told me before the Oregon State game that she was still sore and during
warm-ups moved like it at times.
Fortunately,
adrenaline took over once the game started, but I think this team just tried to
survive the final 20 minutes trying to play respectably and injury free and
they did both.
Chynna Brown did bruise her knee and had it wrapped for a short time,
but returned to the game and seemed fine in the second half.
Now the players turn their attention briefly toward Christmas as they've headed
home to be with their families, then back to work in the middle of next week
when they get ready for Houston on December 30th.