Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Christian Anderson was terrific with 23 points on 8 of 19 from the field, 6 of 12 from deep, 4 boards, 9 assists, and just 2 turnovers.
The Motion:
- Yet another game that I did not watch. I couldn’t stay up to start the game, much less finish it. Yo has to be at basketball at 7:15 tomorrow morning, so it’s an early morning and we lost an hour of sleep. Take everything I write with a grain of salt.
- Based on what I can tell, Texas Tech led for 28 minutes of the game, then maybe lost the lead in the 2nd half was tied late in the game thanks to an Anderson 3 with just under 2 minutes left in the game. BYU then hit a 3 and then Texas Tech was sort of scrambling and missed shots, including a free throw, to keep pace.
- Texas Tech shot 50% in the 1st half and 38% in the 2nd AND Texas Tech was unbelievably hot in the first half from deep, 12 of 19 for 63%. In the second, Texas Tech came back down to earth and made just 25%, 4 of 16. Things were pretty much reversed for BYU, 40% in the 1st half and 50% in the 2nd. BYU hit only 1 3-pointer in the 2nd half, the dagger to take the lead late by the one guy who was only making 30% of his 3’s.
- BYU dominated the points in the paint, 48 to 14 and that’s where you really miss Toppin, to both score and even things out and to apparently play a little defense. BYU also had 20 offensive boards and 20 2nd chance points. Those are all things that ruined Texas Tech against TCU, so maybe they are still figuring out how to stop teams from doing that.
- Bamgboye played with 4 fouls, not sure if he was in foul trouble, I don’t think so, but he only played 22 minutes. Petty fouled out and somehow got all 5 fouls in the 2nd half. It would appear that he was guarding Wright, who is great at getting to the line and drawing fouls because Wright went 9-9 at the line in the 2nd half.
- Watts was a passenger again, only playing 18 minutes and scoring 7 points on just 5 shots with 7 boards (which led the team BTW). Texas Tech really needs more from him.
- I don’t know why Moseley is seeing fewer minutes, maybe they are working on rotations with Moseley in the game, but he played just 15 and was perfect from the field and the line and had 5 points (not that big of an accomplishment).
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “They haven’t been playing their best basketball but I thought they had a second half where they played great. This environment really made a difference in this game. I love our team and love what we can be, but when you give up 20 offensive rebounds and get crushed in the paint like we did today, it’s going to be hard to win. This was a real game against a great team that I thought found their edge tonight in a physical way. They didn’t shoot it great early but they didn’t looked discouraged and their switch ability caused us problems. What they did on the glass was the difference.”
- Advanced Stats: Atwell +5.2; Anderson +4.3; Moseley +2.2; Bryan -1.2; Akuentok -2.1; Petty -2.9; Watts -3.3; and Bamgboye -5.2.
- Up next? Texas Tech has a double-bye for the Big 12 Tournament and as a result, the 1st round in their portion of the bracket has Baylor playing Arizona State, the winner of that will play Iowa State, and Texas Tech will play the winner of that game on Thursday, March 12th at 11:30 a.m. with the game on ESPN2.
Highlights