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Game Recap
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Terrence Shannon was on fire early and absolutely capsized any idea of Montana State being in this game at all. Shannon finished with 20 points on 5 of 7, including 3 of 4 from deep, a rebound, 6 assists, 2 blocks, and a turnover.
Multi-Purpose Player of the Game: Going with the man who had a double-double, Kevin Obanor had 10 points on 5 of 7, but also finished with 11 rebounds and dominated the middle.
Game Notes:
- Montana State 2, Texas Tech 0. Then Texas Tech never looked back, not for a second. Montana State was simply overwhelmed athletically and were simply unable to deal with the defensive pressure that Texas Tech brought.
- Montana State was wrecked in the first half, making just 8 of 25 shots, 32 %, and they were forced into 11 turnovers in that first half. The second half got a bit easier, making 13 of 30 shots for 43%, but only 1 player made 50% of his shots, RaeQuan Battle made 4 of 8 and that’s it. Only 1 player scored in double-figures, Xavier Bishop.
- Meanwhile for Texas Tech, 6 players scored in double-figures, every player other than Davion Warren (4 of 9) KJ Allen (0-1), and Mylik Wilson (1-3) made 50% or greater of their shots. As a team, Texas Tech made 72% of their shots and in the second half, the Red Raiders made 62%.
- Texas Tech dominated the paint, 38 points to just 16 for Montana State and also dominated the boards, 33 to 24. Montana State simply didn’t have any defensive boards to grab, which is what happens when you make 68% of your shots for the game. Texas Tech also made 60% of their 3-point shots
- The ball movement was amazing and the defensive rotations were exquisite. If there was any doubt as to whether or not Texas Tech was ready, the question was answered.
- 23 assists and 12 turnovers is what’s key. Keep the turnovers low and the rest is easy.
- Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle: “A whole lot. They’ve disrupted everybody they’ve played against. It’s tremendous. Like I said, when you see it in person, up close, their point guards are 6’6″, 220 and long and athletic. It’s not a normal team. But that’s how their staff recruits for Coach Adams because that’s the players he likes. They’re dogs. They are literally as real as real gets. And there’s no fake toughness. There’s no fake chip on their shoulder. And for us, they exposed some of the things that we don’t do well with our size, our skill level and some of our passing. But they’ve done it to everybody. And it’s hard. You have to make some crazy shots against them. But if they’re shooting the basketball like that, I’m telling you, there’s not many teams in this tournament that’s going to beat them if they’re shooting that well offensively.”
- Advanced stats box score? The positive players were Shannon, Arms, McCullar, Williams, and Agbo. Shannon was the star statistically followed by Arms.
- Texas Tech head coach Mark Adams: “I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way we played. It was one of our best games all year. We took Montana State very seriously. They are a very good program that is well-coached. We got out of the gate really well and had a great win. We can build on this. This team wants to play as long as we can.”
- Up next? Notre Dame on Sunday, March 20th with tip-off at 6:10 p.m. and game televised on TBS.
Highlights