COLLEGE STATION -- The 11th-ranked Texas A&M women’s basketball team (16-5, 4-4) will travel next to Texas Tech (13-9, 1-7) for a Big 12 Conference road rematch scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 10 at United Spirit Arena. Tipoff between the Aggies and Lady Raiders is scheduled for 7 p.m. (CT). Traveling North to Lubbock has always presented its challenges for the Aggies as they have only been successful on three all-time road trips in 30 tries in the series.

A&M is looking for its first road win in league play since defeating rival Texas on Jan. 9 in its Big 12 season opener. Three of the Aggies’ five losses of the season have occurred on the road at Oklahoma, Baylor and Nebraska. A road victory would be key, considering A&M has all five Big 12 South opponents remaining in its last eight regular-season games with the intention of remaining a top contender in the league race.

The Aggies are currently in a three-way tie for sixth place and one game short of being in second in the latest Big 12 standings, while Texas Tech is 11th. A&M has faced a ranked league foe in six of their first eight games in league play and looks to make a strong finish in the final home stretch.

A LOOK AT THE LADY RAIDERS

Texas Tech looks to end a six-game losing skid and has not won a league game since a 74-61 home victory over Colorado on Jan. 12. Aside from the Aggies, the Lady Raiders have had the second-toughest stretch through the first half of the Big 12 schedule. All seven of their league losses have been to top 25-ranked foes including undefeated Nebraska, Iowa State and twice to Oklahoma and Texas. They are playing without the services of leading scorer and rebounder Kierra Mallard (12.6 ppg and 7.1 rpg) who was suspended from the team indefinitely. Texas Tech has relied on the senior leadership of Ashlee Roberson (12.2 ppg) and Jordan Murphree (12.1 ppg) to guide its young squad in her absence. Nine underclassmen currently make up the 13-player active roster for the Lady Raiders.

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS

TEXAS A&M

No. Name 2009-10 Stats

51 Sydney Carter, G, 5-6, So. 7.1 ppg, 3.2 apg

20 Tyra White, G, 6-0, RS-So. 11.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg

22 Tanisha Smith, G/F, 6-0, Sr. 15.1 ppg, 5.0 rpg

23 Danielle Adams, F/C, 6-1, Jr. 16.2 ppg, 5.7 rpg

2 Damitria Buchanan, F, 6-2, Sr. 2.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg

TEXAS TECH

No. Name 2009-10 Stats

23 Monique Smalls, G, 5-6, Fr. 5.8 ppg, 3.9 apg

13 Jordan Murphree, G, 6-0, Sr. 12.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg

00 Chynna Brown, G, 5-8, Fr. 3.6 ppg, 1.9 rpg

31 Ashlee Roberson, F, 5-11, Sr. 12.2 ppg, 8.8 rpg

1 Jordan Barncastle, F, 6-2, So. 4.3 ppg, 2.1 rpg

STATISTICAL COMPARISON

2009-10 Category TAMU TTU

Overall Record 16-5 13-9

Conference Record 4-4 1-7

Points Per Game 77.0 66.5

Scoring Margin +16.3 +3.2

Rebounds Per Game 39.0 37.5

Rebounding Margin +2.5 -0.6

Field Goal Percentage 46.3 41.3

Field Goal% Defense 36.7 40.7

Three-Point FG% 37.8 30.7

Free Throw Percentage 68.6 66.1

Turnovers Per Game 16.0 18.3

Assists Per Game 16.8 13.5

Blocks Per Game 5.5 4.0

Steals Per Game 9.8 11.0

SERIES HISTORY

Texas Tech leads 53-15 in the all-time series with Texas A&M. The Aggies have won seven out of the last eight meetings between the two Big 12 South rivals. A&M picked up only its third-ever road win in Lubbock in a 63-46 victory at United Spirit Arena on Feb. 2, 2008. The Aggies have only swept the Lady Raiders twice in Big 12 Conference regular-season play during the 2007-08 and 2006-07 campaigns.

LAST EIGHT GAMES IN THE SERIES

W, 69-54 on Jan. 23, 2010 in College Station

L, 53-60 on Feb. 11, 2009 in Lubbock, Texas

W, 67-56 on Jan. 13, 2009 in College Station

W, 70-56 on Feb. 17, 2008 in College Station

W, 63-46 on Feb. 2, 2008 in Lubbock, Texas

W, 67-51 on Feb. 21, 2007 in College Station

W, 49-47 on Jan. 10, 2007 in Lubbock, Texas

W, 65-48 on Feb. 5, 2006 in College Station

LAST TIME OUT

Danielle Adams had 27 points, 12 rebounds and 10 blocks to lead No. 9 Texas A&M to a 69-54 win over Texas Tech on Jan. 23 at Reed Arena. Adams became the 10th player in Big 12 history to record a triple-double and the second at Texas A&M. Her 10 blocks are a school record and her performance came in her first start in a conference game. The Aggies jumped out to an early lead and never trailed. Texas Tech cut its deficit to seven points several times in the second half, but couldn’t get any closer. The last time Texas Tech got within seven, A&M went on a 10-3 run to push the lead to 65-51 and put the game out of reach with less than four minutes remaining. The Lady Raiders didn’t have an answer for the 6-foot-1 Adams and last year’s junior college player of the year was simply too strong for Texas Tech to contend with. Tanisha Smith added 13 points for A&M and Tyra White added 11. The Aggies fought off several comeback attempts by Texas Tech. The Lady Raiders closed the gap to seven points with about 12 minutes remaining before Texas A&M went on a five-point run capped by a steal and 3-point play by Adams that made it 52-40. Texas Tech’s Jordan Murphree, who entered the game averaging 13 points, had four fouls by halftime and finished with no points. Kierra Mallard had nine points and 11 rebounds for the Lady Raiders and Tilmila Martin had eight points. The Aggies jumped out to a 10-0 lead before Texas Tech finally got going and score five straight points. The Lady Raiders cut the lead to 20-16 after four straight free throws with about eight minutes remaining in the first half. Texas A&M responded with eight straight points to extend its lead and was up 37-28 at halftime.

AMONG NCAA LEADERS

The Aggies are currently rated No. 8 in all of the RPI indexes and rank among the top 20 teams in the country in nine different NCAA statistical categories including scoring offense (18th, 77.0), scoring margin (16th, 16.3), field-goal percentage (11th, 46.3), three-point field goal percentage (18th, 37.8), assists per game (11th, 16.8), blocks per game (15th, 5.5), assist-to-turnover ratio (14th, 1.05), turnover margin (17th, 5.62) and three-point field goal defense (19th, 27.0) as of Feb. 7. A&M’s “Two Syds,” sophomore Sydney Carter and junior Sydney Colson, also rank among the top point guards in the nation with a 2.09 (20th) and 1.88 (35th) assist-to-turnover ratio respectively.

FROM THE SIDELINES

• Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair is 7-6 lifetime versus his alma mater in his 25 years as a Division I head coach. Blair earned his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education in 1972 and his master’s degree in education in 1974 from Texas Tech. He also played a season of baseball for the Red Raiders. All seven of his career victories over Tech have occurred during his tenure in Aggieland.

• The Aggies are one of seven Big 12 teams currently in position to turn in a 20-win season. A&M needs four more victories to record its fifth-straight 20-win campaign in the Gary Blair Era. Additionally, Blair has compiled 145 career victories in Aggieland which ranks second only to former head coach Lynn Hickey who post 154 career wins from 1984-94. Blair is currently the winningest women’s basketball coach in school history by percentage (.671).

• A&M will close out a tough two-game road stretch at Texas Tech on Feb. 10 followed by its Beat The Hell Outta Breast Cancer Pink Out game against Kansas State on Feb. 13 at Reed Arena. The Aggies faced the Lady Raiders in their second-annual BTHO Breast Cancer game in 2008 which was broadcast nationally on ESPN2. A&M is 2-1 versus Big 12 North opponents at the midway point of the season and 2-3 against the Big 12 South.

NEBRASKA RECAP

Nebraska 71, Texas A&M 60

• For the first time this year, Texas A&M used the starting lineup of Sydney Carter, Tyra White, Tanisha Smith, Danielle Adams and Damitria Buchanan (0-1).

• The loss marked the Aggies’ third-straight on the road in league play and its eighth loss in nine tries when playing Nebraska in Lincoln. A&M had won four of the last five meetings between the two schools prior to Saturday’s contest.

• A&M’s 11-point loss was the third-smallest margin of victory among Big 12 Conference teams against Nebraska this season. The Cornhuskers averaged a 24.2+ scoring margin versus opponents prior to the ballgame.

• Danielle Adams turned in her third-straight double-digit game in league play with a team-high 18 points. She was one of seven players to total nine blocked shots in the contest with two against the Huskers.

• Tyra White reached double figures for the 13th time this season with 15 points. She brought down a team-leading eight rebounds and has now led the team in the rebounding column on three occasions.

• Maryann Baker came off the bench and contributed a league career-best seven points on a perfect 3-for-3 shooting from the floor and 1-of-1 shooting from beyond the arc against Nebraska. She also tied a career-high with one blocked shot.

AGGIE NOTABLE QUOTABLES

“They are playing for a lot of pride right now, especially with one of their best players, Kierra Mallard, having been indefinitely suspended from the team. Texas Tech will be very young inside (without her) and we have to take advantage of that instead of relying on jump shots whether it’s a zone or man. We won two straight times against Texas Tech until last year. We went out there, Tech played very well and we played very average and we got beat. That’s what the road will do to you. You better have your “A” game or at least your “A-minus” game, if you are expecting to win. It doesn’t matter if your opponent is ranked in the top 25 or not. Texas Tech is playing well and they are playing to get into the postseason.” – Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair on Texas Tech

“After we get through this road game at Texas Tech, we will play four out of our last seven at home. These are very important games. A couple of years ago, we were 1-4 and right now, we are already 4-4. Technically, we should be 5-3 and I was hoping we would be 6-2. We are only one game out of second place. We have to remain positive. No one in front of us has had the road schedule we’ve had to open it up with, especially with Texas, Oklahoma, Baylor and Nebraska. We went 1-3 and no, it wasn’t perfect. We won the first (against Texas) and lost the next three, but we lost to three top 10 teams when we played them. Give them credit. We have to do a better job of coaching, teaching and playing and realize it’s time for us to make our run for the roses. It’s time for us to step up. We know first (place) is out of the question, but if we can go 7-1, we will tie for second or third. That’s what my hope is.” – Coach Blair on making a turnaround and staying in the Big 12 Conference race

“It’s always a tough atmosphere to play at Texas Tech. Every time we go up there, they pretty much get pumped up to play us and get their crowd into the game. We’ve had some tough road games this year and hopefully, we can turn it around and learn from our mistakes from the past. Every game in the Big 12 is physical and aggressive. There is a lot of bumping around. We want to be able to take it inside and get more scoring done. The closer you shoot to the basket, the higher your percentage of making it. They are home and we are on the road this time around. On any given night, anyone can win. You can’t look at the rankings and where we are and where they are in the standings. We don’t look at that at all. We focus on the team we are playing, stick to our game plan and try to execute no matter who it is.” – Texas A&M senior forward Damitria Buchanan on playing on the road in the Big 12 and Texas Tech

AGGIES ON THE RADIO

All Texas A&M women’s basketball games can be heard via a radio broadcast on the Texas A&M Sports Network. Former play-by-play announcer Steve Miller will call the action live from United Spirit Arena alongside color analyst and former player A’Quonesia Franklin on KZNE 1150 AM. A live audio feed will also be available on www.AggieAthletics.com.