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Baylor-Texas Tech Preview

Mar 1, 2010 - 10:29 PM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

Baylor (22-6) at Texas Tech (16-12), 8:00 p.m. EDT

With next week's conference tournament approaching, Baylor has two chances left to establish a single-season team record for Big 12 victories. The Bears may only need the first one.

The No. 21 Bears look to win their third straight Tuesday night in Lubbock, where Texas Tech will try to avoid its first four-game home losing streak in more than 10 years.

Baylor (22-6, 9-5), which hosts Texas to close out the regular season Saturday, tied the program record for Big 12 wins last Saturday with a 70-63 victory at Oklahoma. The Bears went 9-7 in the conference in 2007-08.

"It's good any time when you can win a game in the Big 12 and on the road," coach Scott Drew told Baylor's official Web site after the win over the Sooners. "Again, I don't understand why we don't get more national attention this year with the Big 12. ... Everywhere you go it's a hard-fought game. There are great players and great coaches in this league."

Drew's team is looking to earn a first-round bye in the conference tournament, and the Bears are in good shape to do so. They hold the tiebreaker for the No. 3 seed over No. 23 Texas A&M and Missouri.

"I know we've tried it the other way - without the bye - in years past, and we'd like to try the bye and see how that works," Drew said.

Ekpe Udoh has helped power the Bears' success this season, averaging 13.5 points, 10.1 rebounds and a Big 12-best 4.4 blocks per game. He turned in a dominant performance in an 88-70 home victory over Texas Tech (16-12, 4-10) on Feb. 16, piling up 13 points, 11 rebounds and nine blocks.

Udoh has recorded a Big 12-record 122 blocks in 2009-10.

If worrying about Udoh down low isn't enough, Knight's team will need to find a way to slow down the Bears backcourt of LaceDarius Dunn and Tweety Carter. Dunn is second in the Big 12 with 19.1 points per game and has been even better in the last eight contests, averaging 21.0 points and shooting 46.0 percent from 3-point range.

Despite being held scoreless for the opening 14:34, Dunn finished with 30 points against Texas Tech last month. Carter, the Big 12 leader with 6.0 assists per game, had a season-high 11 to go with 12 points.

the Red Raiders close out their home schedule Tuesday looking to avoid their first four-game slide in Lubbock since Jan. 15-Feb. 2, 2000.

Texas Tech lost its fifth straight overall Saturday, 83-79 in double overtime at Nebraska.

"We couldn't get a stop in the second half," said Knight, whose team led by as many as 14 in the opening 20 minutes. "In overtime, we got some stops, but it wasn't enough."

Since a five-point effort against Baylor on Feb. 16, guard Nick Okorie has averaged 20.7 points - 10 above his season average - in three games.

Texas Tech leading scorer John Roberson, averaging 14.8 points, had 18 with nine assists in the Bears' last visit to Lubbock - an 83-76 Red Raiders victory last Feb. 7.

Texas Tech leads the series with Baylor 74-45 but has lost six of the last eight meetings.