| Whitmire: Familiar rivalry just heating up 03/08/2001 
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Iowa State fans filing into Municipal Auditorium witnessed a rare treat Wednesday: a classic Texas-Texas Tech women's hoops battle.
(For those who remember the old Southwest Conference tournaments, Iowa State is the Arkansas of the Big 12 – sans hog hats. Cyclones fans are everywhere this week in KC)
This Longhorns-Lady Raiders battle was a typical knockdown, drag-out affair. Two Tech players had to go to the bench because of open wounds. A Texas player was given a technical foul. A Tech player could have gotten one after scrapping for a loose ball.
"We know it's going to be a physical game every time we go against them," Tech forward Plenette Pierson said. "They're always going to come in and talk trash. We just let our game do the talking and that will shut them up eventually."
Tech got the final word with a 71-58 victory. The Longhorns won the first debate this season with a 63-57 win in Lubbock. Tech's rebuttal was a 76-60 win in Austin.
"I thought it was interesting that we were matched with UT, of all teams, again," Tech coach Marsha Sharp said. "Our games always seem to go like that."
The good news is the Tech-Texas rivalry should continue to be just as fierce in years to come.
Tech's star on this night was Granbury freshman Jia Perkins, who scored 18 points and seemed to be in several places at once. Fellow freshmen Natalie Ritchie and Jolee Ayers turned in superb defensive performances. Pierson, who scored 15 points and had five rebounds, is just a sophomore.
The Texas roster is also stocked with youngsters. Mansfield freshman Kaira White, who scored 20, lifted Texas to a first-round victory over Nebraska and nearly did it again against Tech.
Stacy Stephens, the Longhorns' hard-working center, also is a mere freshman pup. Texas also had two talented underclassmen, freshman Annissa Hastings and sophomore Tai Dillard, on the bench in street clothes because of injuries.
The Perkins-White matchup in itself should be quite a rivalry for years to come.
"Off the court me and White, we're good friends," Perkins said. "But on the court, it's business."
It was also just business when Texas' Tracy Cook treated Ayers like a piece of furniture to lift herself up off the court. This came after Cook fell hard after yet another tussle under the basket.
"It was just a frustration foul," Cook said. "She dove and my knee got knocked. To push myself up, I kind of pushed on her instead of the floor. It was just part of the action, nothing personal."
The personal side of the rivalry is what makes it so fun. With Tech stocked with so much West Texas talent and Texas mining the Duncanville-Cedar Hill-Mansfield trail, these players grow up playing with and against each other in state tournaments, whether it be UIL or AAU.
"It's a good rivalry," said Cook, a junior from Cedar Hill. "It's always fun to go against their posts. I hate it when we lose. It's not a fun rivalry after we've lost."
Maybe so, but you can bet a few thousand Iowa State fans got a kick out of it.
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