Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: De’Vion Harmon easily gets the TTPOTG award, scoring 15 points on 6 of 8, with 5 boards, 6 assists, 2 blocks and 4 steals with just 1 turnover in 36 minutes. Tons of emotion and clutch plays.
The Motion:
- What a strange game, but maybe a game that was good for it to happen. Texas Tech jumped out early and looked like this was going to be another game where it was Texas Tech by 30+, but Louisiana Tech stormed back. That can be attributed to good shooting or poor defense and Texas Tech turnovers, but LA Tech roared back. It took a bit of resiliency to get the lead back and keep the Bulldogs at bay, which I think they did largely in the second half. Amazingly, Texas Tech never trailed, but it wasn’t easy either.
- With a handful of difficult games coming up, the issues with turnovers were on full display. Texas Tech had 20 turnovers on the evening, 12 in the first half and 8 in the second, with only 65 possessions, to throw away 20 of them just isn’t going to cut it long-term and Texas Tech will get blown out if that continues. Possession security may be one of the more important things that a team has and to just awkwardly throw the ball away is just not good. Pop Isaacs led the way with 4, with Obanor and Tyson each having 3. Those are 3 starters leading the way and yes, they play more minutes, but this will probably be a point of emphasis this week.
- Aside from the turnovers, Texas Tech was good offensively. I thought the ball swinging was much better than last week and as a team, Texas Tech shot 50% from the floor, 39% from 3-point range, and generally look good aside from the couple of shot-clock violations. The only downside was that as a team, they only made 61% of their free throws.
- Of Texas Tech’s 20 turnovers, Louisiana Tech scored 20 points off of them. Texas Tech normally dominates the points in the paint, but it was 26-24 in Texas Tech’s favor, just slightly. Texas Tech was able to convert fast breaks, a 15-4 advantage. One thing that Texas Tech did a good job of limiting was offensive rebounds, the Bulldogs only had 6 for the evening.
- LA Tech didn’t shoot all that well either half, 38% for both half from the floor and 29% from beyond the arc in the first half and 20% in the second half, so those are good defensive numbers.
- Kevin Obanor was a terrific and a really good stabilizing force, 15 points, 8 rebounds.
- Daniel Batcho very much affected Louisiana Tech’s shots, he had 6 blocks on the evening and he was an absolute force, with LA Tech able to get to the rim when he wasn’t in the game. He finished with 9 points and 7 rebounds.
- Pop Isaacs is a terrific and fearless shooter, scoring 10 points and he also had 4 assists. The turnovers are the biggest issue and he’s just got to work that out and be more careful.
- Head coach Mark Adams: “I thought defensively we were really good early and kind of set the pace,” Adams said. “I thought we were ready to play. Now they get a lot of credit they got back in the game, but we had just so many turnovers and got sloppy with the ball instead of just taking care of our business. We’ve got so many young kids on the team and it’s a lot of growing pains and we’re going to have to get through this. Again, I’m praying for patience and I have to remember that because we did get the win the guys played hard.”
- Up next? Texas Tech won’t play again until next Monday, November 21st at 1:30 p.m. (yes, an afternoon game) against No. 10 Creighton.
Highlights