Lady Raiders Fall to #15 Baylor

By Jay Langley - Special to KLBK.com (Lubbock, TX) Despite a career high 33 points from center Patrice Edwards, the Texas Tech Lady Raiders dropped their seventh loss in eight games against 15th ranked Baylor 80-67 Wednesday night at the United Spirit Arena. "I think tonight it looked like girls playing women," Tech coach Kristy Curry said. "I think you have to give Baylor a lot of credit for their talent, their size and their quickness. But its not always about skill, its about will. And I am confused about our lack of aggression tonight." Tech (14-10, 5-5 in Big 12) allowed Baylor to shoot 53 percent from the floor and the Lady Raiders shot half as many free throws as Baylor. "When you are out shot from the free throw line 27 to 14 that says a lot about your aggression," Curry said. "It is what it is." Baylor (20-4, 7-3 in Big 12) was led by Jhasmin Player who scored a career high 22 points on 9 of 15 from the floor. The effort was Players second career high in three games. "I think when youre playing with a lot of confidence you feel like you can score every time," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said of Player. "And Jhasmin takes it off the dribble as well as anybody I have ever coached." Player said she felt she had a quickness advantage over the Tech guards. "The coaches do a great job of helping me with my confidence," Player said. "When she (coach Mulkey) tells me ‘Jazz blow by somebody I feel like I have that green light. She can tell me to do it once and Im going to do it the next three times." Tech hung around for most of the first half behind 18 first half points from Edwards. But Baylor used a 12-2 run over the last six minutes to close the half with a ten point advantage. "I played well tonight," Edwards said, "But I cant get too excited because we lost. So its kinda bitter sweet." Edwards outplayed All-Conference player Bernice Mosby for much of the game, but Mosby managed to finish the game with 15 points and 10 rebounds, her eleventh double- double of the season. "When we scouted (Edwards) we noticed shes been coming along well," Mosby said. "Shes a great post player. Shes tough inside, I mean, when you look at her body and her length you know shes a great player and shes going to do a lot of great things in conference play." Tech managed to make the game interesting even cutting the Baylor lead to one with 5:10 to play. But Baylor used another run, a 16-4 run to end the game. "Wins are hard to come by and especially on the road," Mulkey said. "Walking out of any arena in the Big 12 with a win is really important. You worry about when you play a team with as many seniors as Tech has, especially as young as we are. But we grow up every time we get an opportunity to do something good." Tech next plays Kansas State 2 p.m Sunday at the USA.