It was a valiant effort Saturday night for the Red Raider basketball team, who certainly had their chances to knock off No. 1 Kansas, but in the end they had their 10-game home winning streak snapped. Texas Tech fell to the top-ranked Jayhawks 69-59 to drop their second-straight game.
Much of it was due to self-inflicted wounds that eventually did the Red Raiders in down the stretch.
After weathering a Kansas run to open the second half, Tech answered with a 12-2 run of their own to knot the score at 44-44 with 10:23 remaining.
However, after holding the Jayhawks to just 29% shooting in the first half, Tech could not sustain the same defensive efficiency. The Red Raiders allowed Kansas to shoot 58.3% from the field in the second half.
Poor defense, compounded with Tech’s 9-of-19 shooting effort from the charity stripe were the difference in the game.
“We didn’t rebound the ball. We didn’t defend, and you put that together with free throw shooting, yeah, you’re right, that’s a remedy for a loss,” Texas Tech head basketball coach Tubby Smith said. “You’re not going to win many games like this, whether it’s the number one or number fifty in the country. You’re just not going to win. So we got a real problem in that area right now.”
“Unfortunately, tonight we didn’t shoot it as well as we should have,” Tech sophomore guard Justin Gray said. “Ultimately, that cost us, besides our defensive mistakes we made. If we made the free throw, we would’ve been in the ball game.”
