Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Can it be anyone other than Mac McClung? Quite simply, he is amazing and he stole that game. Straight up should have been arrested in Baton Rouge for theft of what looked like a sure-handed win because he stole that M-Effing game.
The Motion:
- I don’t even want to think about what would happen if Texas Tech couldn’t pull that off. Texas Tech looked done with a minute left in the game, Texas Tech was down 64-71 and it looked like it was all but over because all LSU had to do is not mess up and play some defense. That didn’t happen because McClung stroked a three with 59 seconds left. Interestingly, on the defensive end of things, Texas Tech subbed in Chibuzo Agbo for Marcus Santos-Silva because Beard said after the game that Texas Tech was going to press. Beard said that Mark Adams wanted to press it was his call. Kyler Edwards fouls a guy (would guarantee that this was not by accident) that’s shot 3 free throws all year and this guy misses the front end of his 1-and-1, Agbo shoots an ill-advised three-point shot and McClung grabs the rebound or pass (I’m calling it a pass, backs it up knowing he needs a three-point shot, and just nails it with 31 seconds left. McClung knocks the ball away from Watford right to Terrence Shannon and makes a contested layup (probably got fouled, but whatever) and now your Red Raiders are up by 1 with 23 seconds left. An absolute junk shot by LSU (Thomas felt like he wasn’t going to miss all game long so go ahead). That was church because then Shannon didn’t miss from the line for the rest of the game.
- McClung ended up scoring 22 points on 7 of 15 from field, 3 of 7 from the three-point line, 5 boards, 2 turnovers, and 2 steals. I think you could could the steal to Shannon at the end of the game as an assist. An absolute fantastic game.
- Santos-Silva was stupid on the offensive glass, grabbing 7 rebounds on the offensive alone and recording 12 on the evening. MSS had issues scoring because of LSU’s length, but there was no lack of effort.
- There is a part of me that wants Terrence Shannon to not shoot so many three-point shots, but by the end of the evening, he had scored 23 points on 6 of 13, but made 9 of 10 free throws, 10 rebounds, and 2 steals. The steal was huge, but Shannon scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half.
- Edwards also scored all 8 of his points in the second half, and boy, did we need those 2 three-point shots.
- Some stats. Texas Tech out-rebounded a bigger LSU team 41-29. Texas Tech made 81% of their free throws compared to 67% for LSU. LSU scored 17 points off of turnovers compared to 7 for Texas Tech. Texas Tech had 28 bench points compared to 2 for LSU and Smart and Thomas scored 54 of their 71 points. Again, LSU being the bigger team didn’t matter as Texas Tech scored 32 of 26 points in the paint. Texas Tech had 13 turnovers for the game, 9 in the first half and 4 in the second. That was absolutely key.
- Kevin McCullar had a quiet 10 point game with 6 boards, 3 assists, 3 turnovers, and a strong game offensively.
- Head coach Chris Beard:
“You just have to keep putting yourself in these positions to win games,” Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said. “My tone hasn’t changed. There’s a poise and confidence required to win a game down the stretch and I though our guys showed that tonight. We made just enough plays on defense and offense. It was a gutsy game between two good teams and we made the plays at the end.”
- Up next? Hosting Oklahoma on Monday as part of Big Monday, tip set for 8:00 p.m. and set to be broadcast on ESPN.
Highlights