The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Conference play presented an early season matchup featuring two of the country’s top college basketball players in a Big 12 rivalry game.

In the end it was Lashann Higgs and her No.5 Texas Longhorns who scored an 86-62 win over Leashja Grant and the Texas Tech Lady Raiders at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night.

Higgs, the Big 12 preseason freshman of the year, finished with two points and a steal in just four minutes. Grant, the junior starting centre for the Lady Raiders, fouled out with nine points, five rebounds and a blocked shot.

The Longhorns remained undefeated at 13-0 while the Lady Raiders fell to 9-4. With the win, the Longhorns tie last year’s squad for the third-best start in programme history and are only six games away from the 1,000 victory milestone, an accomplishment achieved by only four other Division I programmes in history.

Higgs is averaging 8.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in just over 16 minutes of play on the season. She comes off of her best game of the season, just before conference play began when she scored a game-high 17 points to go along with eight rebounds and a career-high eight assists in a win over Sam Houston State. She also tied her career high with four steals in a career-high 26 minutes.

Grant’s 12 points per game is third on the Lady Raiders in scoring and she leads the team on the boards by pulling down 7.7 rebounds per game. She also leads the team in blocks at 1.3 per game. She recently came off a 21-point and nine-rebound performance as Texas Tech opened Big 12 play with a 78-69 loss to TCU. She had an immediate impact following her transfer from the JuCo ranks, when she debuted with 26 points and 15 rebounds against Niagra followed by 13 points and 12 rebounds against Southeastern Louisiana. The Longhorns will remain at home as they host Iowa State on Wednesday

while the Lady Raiders will now return home to face Oklahoma State.