For
the first time this season, the Red Raiders headed into the locker room at
halftime in an unfamiliar spot – trailing an opponent inside the United
Spirit Arena.
In
the end though, the Red Raiders were able to prevail and overcome a 33-30
deficit at the half to eventually win 84-75, making interim head coach Chris Walker only the second coach in program history to start his tenure a perfect
4-0.
“We
were down, I think it was like 11-1, that hasn’t happened to this team before,
but yet they fought through it,” Walker said. “They were down at half time,
that hasn’t happened to this team before, with seven new players, yet they
found a way to come out.”
And
what were the magic words spoken at half time that turned the team around?
Junior
Jamal Williams, who was one of four Red Raiders to break into double-digits
going for 12 points on a 4-for-7 night from the field, said Walker had a
message for the team in the locker room.
“We
were going to face this,” he said. “I’m glad it happened, and we had to come
together to get through adversity. He just told us, once we came together
success will come.”
A
key part once again for the Red Raiders that helped bring the team together was
junior Jaye Crockett coming off the bench again and
once again “providing a spark”.
For
the third-straight game, Crockett finished with double-digits in points,
accumulating 20, and his second game out of that three-game stretch to eclipse
the 20-point mark.
Unlike
their other most recent contests, where Tech was winning by 35 against
Grambling State and 28 against Omaha, respectively, Crockett said this game was
a good test for the team.
“The
first couple games we have been going to the half with the lead,” Crockett
said. “This game we went in struggling, I think we were down about 3, so we
just knew we had to come out hard the second half. It was a good test,
especially for this weekend coming up, we’ve got a top ten team coming in, so
it was a great test for that.”
Tech
finished the first half just shooting 36.1 percent from the field, but then
came back in the second half and began getting the shots to drop, hitting 57.6
percent of its shots against Jackson State (0-3).
Overall
the Red Raiders finished shooting just 46.4 percent from the field, which is
the lowest finish for Tech in a game since shooting 45.5 percent against Omaha.
With
a low percentage of shots going down during this game, yet still being able to
pull out a win was bitter sweet for the team, as Walker puts it as an “ugly
win.”
“An
ugly win, we’ll take it. We took an ugly win,” said Walker. “We’ve been beating
teams by thirty points—that’s not going to happen every night. You know,
you guys saw what happened at Poly last night, you see what happened in Waco.
This could have very easily been a different outcome, but our guys dug in, and
I preach about playing hard and playing more together than the other team. We
came together, our bench, our activity, our guy’s enthusiasm changed, our
energy changed, we got some stops, and that is Texas Tech Basketball—not
the threes falling.”
Coach
Walker was referring to the devastating loss for UCLA to Cal Poly basketball on
Sunday—the highest-ranking team that has ever been beaten by the
Mustangs. Walker also made reference to the Baylor basketball game, where
Charleston beat the 24 ranked Baylor 63-59, a upset
where there were seventeen turnovers in the Cougar’s favor.
Now
Tech will set its sights on its own top-ranked opponent as No. 9 Arizona comes
into the United Spirit Arena on Saturday as the first ranked opponent for the
Red Raiders in nonconference play since December 3, 2009 when Tech took on
then-No. 12 Washington and upset the Huskies in overtime 99-92.
It
will be a great atmosphere, Walker said, and his squad has a few days to get
ready and they just have to focus on themselves and not Arizona.
“It’s going to be a Big 12 game and we’re going to have a Big 12
fan atmosphere there and we’re excited. But at the end of the day it’s about
Texas Tech, it’s not about Arizona,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who the next
game or the next team is, the next game is always the biggest game on our
schedule and we’re looking forward to that. Our guys are excited and we’re
going to be ready to go and we’re going to play the same way, Texas Tech
basketball. We’re going to press them, we’re going to get up in them and we’re
going to play harder and more together. It’s about Texas Tech basketball versus
Arizona basketball.
“We’ve got three days to work on them and we’re going to be ready
to go.”