Lady Raiders focusing on better defense in exhibition
Tech will open its season with an exhibition against Angelo State today, and the new-look Lady Raiders are readying for a renaissance of sorts for the program.
What happens this afternoon at United Spirit Arena won’t have any official bearing on the Texas Tech women’s basketball team, but that doesn’t mean the Lady Raiders are taking the game any less seriously.
Tech will open its season with an exhibition against Angelo State at 2 p.m. today, and the new-look Lady Raiders are readying for a renaissance of sorts for the program.
Fifth-year coach Kristy Curry has a team all her own, with the size and depth she feels can do some damage in the Big 12 Conference. The Lady Raiders will be playing with a full roster for the first time since Curry took over in 2006.
“Our depth is glaring,” said Curry, who dealt with a particularly short-handed team last season. “I’m excited about it and the different possibilities and combinations we can play if we stay healthy.”
Curry’s focus today will be on the Lady Raiders’ defense, which she said won’t have any excuses to play anything less than 100 percent.
The extra bodies will give Tech some new looks on defense, particularly in its press package. The Lady Raiders can press more often and swap personnel to suit any situation.
“If you’re not playing defense, I don’t care how many points you score, you’re going to sit down this year,” Curry said. “Defense is the No. 1 priority. We’re going to play defense, play it the way it should be played or you’ll sit, because we have someone else to put in.”
In a little over a month of practice, Antiesha Brown has taken notice of Tech’s improved defense and she hopes the team continues to maintain a tone that was set during a series of August exhibitions in Canada. The freshman from Clovis, N.M. said the team already feels confident and comfortable with each other on the floor.
“That fist time playing together we realized, ‘Hey, we can really do this year,” Brown said. “We just have to keep doing what we’re doing. Right now we’re really quick defensively and really aggressive.”
Brown is joined by several newcomers, only a handful of which are freshmen. Kelsi Baker, Haley Schneider and Ebony Walker round out the freshman corps, while Shauntal Nobles, Teena Wickett and Casey Morris will be new only to fans.
Nobles redshirted the 2009-10 season after tearing her Achilles’ tendon. Morris sat out last year after transferring from California, and Wickett — the team’s lone senior — was ineligible last year.
“I think this is going to be a wake-up call,” Walker said. “It’s our first game, so I think it will help us realize, ‘OK, this has started. Let’s get busy.’ ”
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