Forty minutes was not enough to settle the game between the
Red Raiders and Longhorns inside the United Spirit Arena on Saturday.
Texas Tech was able to grab a 67-61 lead in the extra
period, but thanks to four straight turnovers partnered with a 10-0 run by the
Longhorns, the Red Raiders were unable to hold on falling 71-67 in overtime.
“Tough loss,”
Tech head coach Billy Gillispie said. “Good game to watch if you’re a fan, lot
of exciting plays, a lot of good plays made, but they got us at the end we just
never got a shot at the basket the last minute and 45 and four turnovers in a
row when you have the lead, you can’t do that and win.”
The beginning of
the game was much different than the end for the Red Raiders and the Longhorns
alike.
Tech (8-20, 1-15
in Big 12 Play) kicked off the game unlike a lot of its Big 12 Conference games
with a 14-6 run before a timeout was called. But coming out of that timeout was
a completely different team.
The Red Raiders
struggled to make a shot going 3-for-14 from the field after starting the game
6-for-10, and the Longhorns took advantage.
Texas (18-11,
8-8) proceeded to rattle off a 25-3 run, taking the lead and putting a
reasonable distance between them and Tech with a 31-17 lead with two minutes
and 19 seconds left in the first half.
Tech was able to
cut into that lead a little before the half, but still went into the locker
room down 33-22 despite leading by eight at one point.
Coming out of the
locker room it was a different-look Red Raider team as they were able to not
only climb back into the game, but take the lead with 8:25 left in the game as
Tech took a 44-43 lead on a layup from Terran Petteway, who finished the game with six points and 10
rebounds.
Tech was able to
hang onto the lead until J’Covan Brown, who was
one-of-four Texas players to finish with double-digits in the score column,
laid it up and gave the Longhorns the 53-52 lead with 2:39 left in the game.
Texas would
continue to lead, then with 16 seconds left in the game and down by two, Javarez Willis was able to drive the lane and knot the game
up at 59 apiece with two of his 15 points on the afternoon.
The Red Raiders
would have a chance to win the game at the buzzer as Jaye
Crockett stole the ball and drove the court but came up short at the buzzer as
his shot went off the front of the rim sending the game to overtime.
“Yeah, by the
time I got there I was like I’ll just pull up,” Crockett said about the shot at
the end of regulation. “I mean I
wish I could do it all over I had enough time to take it to the hole that just
wasn’t a smart move on my part.”
Heading to
overtime, the Red Raiders had the momentum on their side and it paid off as
Tech opened on an 8-2 run, to take a 67-61 lead, but that would be their last
lead of the game.
Texas turned it
on and thanks to four straight turnovers by the Red Raiders, the Longhorns went
on a 10-0 run to close out the game and notch the 71-67 win.
“I would
definitely say that it was an escape not a win,” Texas head coach Rick Barnes
said. “You’ve got to give Tech credit, they’ve fought all year long. But I’ve
got to say this, from a coaching staff standpoint, we
did not think this game would be easy. We had chances in the first half, we
could have scored 40-50 points but we didn’t. In the second half we came out
and they got back in the game. You look at 17 turnovers, and 12 of them come
from your guards, which you can’t have. And they go triangle-and-two or box-
and-one, which we talked about. And we got impatient, we didn’t move, we just
slowed down and quit playing. Then one guy would go try and do something with
it and never looked at the post guys like we needed to. Now, at the start of
the game we did what we wanted trying to put fouls on certain guys. But I think
that fact is it wasn’t going to be easy.
“Give them credit for coming back, but I think give our guys credit too. They
are looking at it and scored the last 10 points of the game where we had to
come up with some really good defensive stops.”
Despite falling again to a conference foe, the Red Raiders were able to get
three players in double-digits in scoring as Crockett led the way with 16.
With the multiple leads the team held throughout the game, especially the
six-point advantage in overtime, Willis said they feel like they gave the game
to Texas and it hurts when you do that as a team.
“We knew we should’ve won that game,” he said. “We had that game, and it just
hurt because we’ve been fighting every single day, we fight every single day
just to get a win and we let it slip between our hands.”