By JEREMY COWEN
Avalanche-Journal

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Finishing what you started is more than just a piece of advice - they are words to survive by in the NCAA basketball tournament.

Texas Tech's women's team continued to put itself in position to win its Mideast Regional semifinal against Purdue on Saturday, never allowing the Boilermakers to take control of a game they possessed the upper hand in for nearly the entire afternoon.

Instead of finishing the job and ripping the contest out of the hands of the Boilermakers, however, Tech continually found itself two, three or four points short. And although the Lady Raiders should be credited for putting themselves in position to extend their season, it was Purdue that finished what it started by making the necessary plays to post a 74-72 victory.

"I'm really proud about how our players hung in there," Tech head coach Marsha Sharp said. "There were a couple of times that I thought they could've folded, but they didn't. We kept hanging around, trying to make just enough plays to give ourselves a chance to win. I thought at the end that we were going to get a couple to go down and make that happen."

Despite a less-than-sparkling shooting performance and the absence of leading scorer Plenette Pierson for much of the game due to foul trouble, Tech never quit fighting on Saturday. Each time it appeared Purdue was ready to put the game out of reach, the Lady Raiders would storm back.

Led by an outstanding defensive performance from lone senior Katrisa O'Neal and a spectacular, 29-point effort from freshman Jia Perkins, the Lady Raiders kept the pressure on the regular-season Big 10 champions.

"I thought we had some people make some big plays on both ends," Sharp said. "Katrisa O'Neal, during her whole career at Tech, has made a lot of plays defensively to put us in a position to win games. I thought her and Jia Perkins both made some big plays defensively and I also thought Casey Jackson got involved. We were a little bit quicker to the ball there for a few minutes and we tried to turn that into some offense."

Sharp's team, however, just couldn't make enough plays to finish the job and win the game. After the marvelous run late in the game that allowed them to notch a 70-70 tie with 2:20 remaining, the Lady Raiders missed their next four shots, including a pair of lay-ups by Perkins and O'Neal.

Still, even when Jia Perkins curled around a screen to loft up a 3-pointer with 14 seconds remaining, Tech was in position to tie the game. But when the ball rimmed out and Purdue's Katie Douglas corralled the rebound, the final chance to make the game-turning play ended.

"I'd like to give congratulations to Purdue," Sharp said. "I thought they really stepped up and made plays when they had to in order to advance. This time of year, I really think that's what it is all about - to have things happen in a positive way and to make enough plays to go win.

"I thought we put ourselves in position to do that a couple of times, but had a couple of lay-ups not go in and I thought Perkins' 3 toward the end of the game was down. We just didn't get the right roll and I thought Purdue went down and made some plays they needed to make in order to win."

Jeremy Cowen can be contacted at 766-8736 or jcowen@lubbockonline.com.