The No. 8 seed Texas Tech Red Raiders face the No. 9 seed Oklahoma State
University Cowboys in the first game of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship on
Thursday at 11:30 AM (Central Time). The game will be telecast from the
Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri on ESPN2. Ron Franklin will call the
play-by-play. Fran Fraschilla will provide the game analysis.
Mark Finkner will call the courtside
action along with Corky Oglesby as analyst on the Texas Tech Sports Network
local stations KQBR-FM 99.5 and KKAM-AM 1340.
The Big
12 coaches voted Martin Zeno to the All-Big 12 Second Team. With his 27 points
in his last conference home game, the senior from Sulphur, Louisiana has scored 1,906 points in his four
seasons as a Red Raider. Martin is now the fifth leading scorer in Texas Tech
history.
The Red
Raiders and the Cowboys are meeting for the 42nd time since the
series began on January 1, 1937 and for the third time this season.
Overall, OSU
leads the series, 28-13. Texas Tech leads the series 7-6 when the teams have
played in Lubbock. OSU has a 17-4 margin in Stillwater and a 5-2 margin
on neutral courts. OSU won the first meeting of the season in Stillwater on January 12,
74-55. Texas Tech won the second meeting in Lubbock on February 2, 67-60.
Texas Tech (16-14, 7-9) won their
final three home non-conference games at the United Spirit Arena during the
holiday season. On December 29, the Red Raiders topped Northwestern State (95-71) and then edged Lamar on New
Year’s Day, 79-77. Texas Tech beat the UTEP Miners on January 5,
75-68.
Texas Tech opened the 2007-2008
conference season with a loss on the road on January 12 to Oklahoma, 74-55. The Red
Raider squad gave Coach Bob Knight his 900th career win as they
dropped # 9/10 Texas A&M on January 16, 68-53. Tech lost a close game at OU,
63-61, on January 19 before topping Missouri, 92-84 at the United Spirit Arena on
January 23. The Raiders lost at Texas, 73-47,
before dropping Oklahoma State at the United Spirit Arena on
February 2, 67-60. After the OSU win, the Raider lost two road games. They lost
at Baylor, 80-74, on February 6 and at Nebraska on February 9,
73-62.
Coach Pat Knight’s Red Raiders
downed #18/22 ranked Kansas State Wildcats on February 13 by nine points, 84-75.
Alan Voskuil the both teams in scoring with 30 points, a career best
performance.
The Red Raiders lost to OU on
February 16 on a Sooner desperation shot from twenty-five feet, 66-64. On
February 20, Texas Tech won their first road game in conference play as they
topped Colorado, 87-69. The Red Raiders dropped the
ISU Cyclones (76-64) at home on February 23 before losing to Texas A&M
(98-54) in College
Station on February 27.
On March 1, the Red Raiders defeated
# 5 Texas at
the United Spirit Arena, 83-80. It marked the fourth time this season the Red
Raiders had defeated a nationally ranked team. Texas Tech lost at # 6 Kansas, 109-51 on March 3
and against Baylor on March 8.
Martin Zeno leads the Red Raiders in
scoring with 16.3 ppg. Alan Voskuil is averaging 12.9 ppg while John Roberson
adds 12.6 ppg.
The Red Raiders are averaging 69.8
ppg for the season.
Oklahoma
State is 16-14
for the season and 7-9 in conference play. After OSU’s season opening 74-55 home win against
Texas Tech on January 12, the Cowboys lost six games. They lost at Baylor
(79-71) and at Iowa State (73-66). OSU lost at home to
Texas (63-61)
and to Texas A&M (59-56). On January 28, the Cowboys lost at Oklahoma, 64-61, and at
Texas Tech on February 2, 67-60. They won at Colorado and then lost at KSU before gaining wins over
Baylor, A&M, Kansas, at Missouri, and against Nebraska. OSU lost their final two games
against OU and at Texas.
Oklahoma State has three players averaging double figures for the
season in James Anderson (13.4), Byron Eaton (11.7), and Terrel Harris
(10.2).
The Cowboys are averaging 69.0 ppg
and are allowing 66.2 ppg.
The winner of the Texas Tech – OSU
game will play No. 1 seed Texas on Friday at 2 PM
(Central).
