After a hard loss to Arizona, 85-57, on Saturday, the
Red Raiders made a comeback on Tuesday night against Northern Kentucky keeping
the Norse winless this season with a 75-69 victory inside the United Spirit
Arena.
“It felt good, you know,” junior Daylen
Robinson, who finished the game with nine points and three rebounds, commenting
on the Arizona game, said. “That was a tough loss and all, but, you know, the
good thing about basketball, like coach says, it’s a lot of games, so we just
keep try to keep pushing and pushing, and we just try to be the best team we
can be by the end of the year. We don’t like losing, because we’re competitive,
but that was a good thing to get back on the court and play a game before we go
on break.”
There was a lot of flip-flopping back and forth with
points, one second Tech is up by twenty, and the next there are a couple errors
and Northern Kentucky (0-6) would be right back in it.
Despite being outscored in the second half 34-32, the
Red Raiders (5-1) were able to hang in even though Tech committed 19 turnovers in the ball
game.
Freshman guard Josh Gray, who finished shooting 5-for-8
from the field for 14 points, second on the team, said the team needs to work
on the little things to keep improving and preventing little mistakes.
“That’s just something us as the guards and coach
Walker, he said in the locker room, that’s something he has to work on us with,
time management, technical control of the ball, and slowing it down when we’re
up and if they’re close in the game and at the second half, three minutes left,
we need to control the ball, we need those shots,” he said. “That’s just
something we need to work on. I’m a freshman guard, I’ve never played at this
level before, there’s something I’ve got to add to my
game to learn.”
Besides Gray’s 14-point performance, junior Jaye Crockett once again came off the bench and provided a
spark for the Red Raiders scoring 16 points and grabbing eight boards as well.
At the end of the night, interim head coach Chris Walker said he was proud of the shooting and that it was a good win for the
team.
“One thing I’m proud about our guys is that we shot
fifty eight percent from the field, we shot forty two percent from three, I
think those were the highest totals all year long and they did what we asked
them to do,” he said. “We knew that team was going to pack it in and the number
one thing we talked about for two days was execution, and we are really gonna’ work on our half court. Forget about them, this game
was not about Northern Kentucky, and it was strictly about executing and doing
what the coaches said do.”
Coach Walker attributes the team losing their twenty
point lead to the fact this is a young team and they don’t know how to play
with a lead or slow down the speed of the game, and he said that is something
they will have to work on in the future.
The next game for Red Raider Men’s Basketball will be
December 16 against McNeese State, in the United Spirit Arena with first tip
set for 5 p.m.