The Red Raiders (6-5) suffered a close loss to the Stanford Cardinals (10-1) at the O’Reilly Christmas Classic in Dallas. Texas Tech was led by Martin Zeno with 14 points, followed by Alan Voskuil who added 13 points.
There were 6 lead changes and 4 ties during the game. Stanford led most of the first half, but Tech took control at the 5:46 mark to take a halftime lead of 33-26. The Red Raiders extended their lead to 10 points in the beginning of the 2nd half but then let it slowly dwindle away.
Down by 4, Alan Voskuil hit a three with 2.1 seconds left in the game, but it came too late. Stanford then ran out the clock without getting fouled to leave the American Airlines Center with the victory and their second straight win over Texas Tech.
Missing a couple of key free throws and committing untimely turnovers hurt Texas Tech down the stretch. “We made some mistakes that kept us from being in a position where we could control things in the last couple of minutes” said Coach Knight after the game.
The Lopez twins proved to be a tough match-up for the Red Raiders. “They’re big and they’re agile; they are good. Anybody that size with that kind of agility is going to create problems,” explained Coach. Brook Lopez led Stanford in scoring with 19 points and his twin brother, Robin Lopez, contributed 10.
The Red Raiders played a good, tough game and were a play or two away from beating a Top 25 team in Stanford. Their last three non-conference games (Northwestern State, Lamar, and UTEP) are all being played in Lubbock and will help Tech build up their confidence going into Big 12 play. The first conference game comes against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on January 12th in Stillwater.
The Red Raiders host the Northwestern State Demons on December 29th at the United Spirit Arena. This marks the initial meeting between the two teams. The game will be broadcast on the Texas Tech Television Network at 1:00pm Central Standard time.
Attendance: 7,119
Time of Game: 1:56