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Game Recap
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Kevin McCullar had himself a night, scoring 24 points, making 9 of 18 including 3 of 9 from beyond the arc, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and 2 turnovers.
Multi-Purpose Player of the Game: We’ll give this to Adonis Arms who only played 22 minutes, but scored 9 points, had 5 boards, 3 assists, a steal and 2 turnovers on the evening.
Game Notes:
- The game sort of flipped a bit once the Grambling State head coach was T’d up (and that coach had a legitimate gripe as his player was hammered on the head and there was no call), then a charge call on GSU with Warren making the play, and then Texas Tech went on a bit of a roll, although it took a few minutes later to get going. Through the first half, the game never felt certain. In fact, Grambling shot 52% in the first half, and then came back down to earth, making just 43% of their shots, although Texas Tech could never really close out on what’s been a bad-shooting team in GSU
- Despite the second half turnovers, Texas Tech played better on offense as well, making 58% of their shots and 50% of their three-point shots, so aside from the 9 second half turnovers, this was a more efficient offense and team. I’d also add that a huge part of GSU’s success was that zone defense that just slows everything down for Texas Tech. That may be the issue with Texas Tech is having a penetrator to create shots in a zone or having enough guys that can break the zone from hitting outside. The ball rotation was fine
- GSU really guarded Obanor well and I think teams will continue to do that. My guess is that he might need to do a bit more to score. He’s largely stood on the perimeter and he can certainly get a shot up incredibly quickly, but he might try to figure out a different way to score.
- It is early, but the defensive breakdowns are noticeable, and that is largely because Texas Tech hardly misses them. There were times were the rotations were just a bit slow or maybe there was a double0team that didn’t need to happen that caused the rotation to be a bit off and allow for an open shooter. Those things are correctable.
- Offensively, I would like to see more movement when teams are defending the zone.
- I do want to mention Davion Warren, who scored 19 points on just 7 shots, making all 7 free throws, grabbing 6 boards, but he was the main culprit for those 2nd half turnovers with 4, and 5 for the game.
- Bryson Williams is a beast inside, just so tough to stop. Scored 16 points on 9 shots and grabbed 9 rebounds.
- Texas Tech was able to do a few things really well. They had 21 second chance points, compared to just 3 for GSU, they had 23 points off of turnovers compared to 12, and just 13 turnovers compared to 24 for the Tigers.
- Head Coach Mark Adams: “I thought we made some steps forward from our last game. That’s what you want to try to prove every game out. I thought our defense was a little bit better. We forced some turnovers and were able to score off our defense late in the second half. I thought our rebounding game was consistent, that made some huge strides.”
Highlights