The Red Raiders entered their home opener against the Bears
with a three-game winning streak intact, including a 62-53 victory against TCU
on Saturday.
Despite the conference-opening victory, Baylor quickly
showed the young and inexperienced Texas Tech squad what the Big 12 was all
about en route to an 82-48 beat down inside the USA.
“We’ve got young guys who’ve never played against a team
like this in their life, you know eight guys who have never played against a
team like this in their life with this much talent, there’s no way they could
have,” Tech interim head coach Chris Walker said. “It’s a good lesson for them,
you know it’s a good lesson for them.”
The game was close for the first few minutes, with Tech
(8-5, 1-1 in Big 12 play) getting as close as 11-9 with 14 minutes and 46
seconds left in the first half, but once the Bears started to pull away, the
Red Raiders started chunking the ball up and hoping it went through the hoop
and did so without much success.
Tech finished the game just 18-for-59 from the field giving
the Red Raiders a 30.5 field-goal percentage, the lowest of the season.
Frustration escalated as the game carried on, Baylor
eventually leading by as much as 39 at one point, both freshman Josh Gray and junior
Jaye Crockett garnering technical fouls in the second half.
Crockett, finishing the game with 13 points on 4-for-13
shooting from the field and 3-for-6 from beyond the arc, said just the overall
performance of the team is not where it needed to be.
“The effort could be better I mean every game, you could
take effort to another level, you can never just play hard enough,” he said. “I
feel like, tonight definitely, we didn’t have enough effort from the whole team
total. We could have come out and played harder, we just have to change it next
game.”
Baylor (10-4, 2-0) didn’t have any trouble scoring, four
Bears reaching double figures in the game including senior Pierre Jackson.
Jackson, the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year pick,
finished the game with a team-high 18 points and seven assists followed up by
freshman Isaiah Austin and Cory Jefferson, both scoring 17, and junior Brady Heslip scoring 11.
The Bears finished the game hitting 53.6 percent of their
shots en route to a perfect start to Big 12 play.
Baylor interim head coach Jerome Tang, usual head coach
Scott Drew serving a two-game suspension because of self-imposed NCAA sanctions
by Baylor, said he just wanted to return the car to Drew not dented and full of
gas and the players assisted with that.
“They were focused, our guys were focused from the start of
the game,” he said. “They were focused yesterday, they were focused in shoot
around today, this was a business trip. We understood the importance and how
hard it is to get a road win in the Big 12.”
The road does not get any easier for the Red Raiders from
here as next up are the nationally ranked Kansas Jayhawks.
Entering a game after such a one-sided victory, freshman
guard Dusty Hannahs, finishing with seven points on 3-for-7 shooting, said the
team has to do the same things they always do in preparation for a game, even
if it is against No. 6 Kansas.
“Go to work hard, don’t just take a day off tomorrow by just
being down thinking about this game,” Hannahs said. “Come in ready for the next
game, ready for the next week just practice hard and keep your habits the same,
not just be drowned with sorrow. That’s all you really do to prepare for a team
like Kansas, who’s also an unbelievable team.
“We’re going to put our best foot forward and hopefully
execute the game plan better this time.”
Tech and Kansas are set for a 3 p.m. tip-off inside the
United Spirit Arena on Saturday with the game being televised on the Big 12
Network.