BOXSCORE (PDF)
QUICK HITS- The Buffs went on a 12-2 run early in the first half after trailing 6-0 to take a 12-8 lead
- Tech responded with a 11-5 run of their own to take a 19-17 lead into a media timeout
- WT committed 15 fouls in the first half that led to 17 points by the Red Raiders (17-22)
- Texas Tech went 6-12 (50%) from the floor in the first eight minutes of the second half
- The Red Raiders went on an 8-0 run in the heart of the second half to stretch the lead to 83-65
- The Buffs committed 29 fouls in the game that led to 31 points by Texas Tech (31-45)
- WT moves to 56-28 all-time against Texas Tech, Monday was the first meeting since 1982
- The Buffs are now 15-18 all-time in Lubbock with the last meeting coming on Dec. 12, 1982.
LEADING THE WAY (Statistical Leaders)Points – Toddrick Gotcher (TTU, 23 Points),
Joseph Prince (WT, 20 Points)
Rebounds – Isaiah Manderson (TTU, 8 Rebounds),
Ryan Quaid (WT, 4 Rebounds),
David Chavlovich (WT, 4 Rebounds),
Eric Golightly Jr. (WT, 4 Rebounds)
Assists –
David Chavlovich (WT, 6 Assists), Devaughntah Williams (TTU, 4 Assists)
WT HEAD COACH TOM BROWN"Well I'll tell you what, it is a lot of fun to come down here and play. We didn't come out on the right end, but what a great experience. First class facility, the way we were treated down here was just great. Obviously on the court, we weren't treated that nicely but great experience for our guys. I know our guys were looking forward to this for a long time" said Brown "It was a lot of fun; we had a lead there right away in the beginning. I don't know if Tubby (Smith) did that on purpose to give us a little hope, but we played hard and had a lot of fun. I think we learned a lot about ourselves, and we're looking forward to the rest of our season now when we get into the regular season with Fort Lewis on Friday."
LUBBOCK, Texas – The West Texas A&M Buffaloes trailed by just four heading into the locker room for halftime before the Texas Tech Red Raiders used their size and depth to outlast the Buffs, 91-74 in a Monday night exhibition at United Supermarkets Arena in front of 2,584 fans in Lubbock, Texas.
The Red Raiders opened up the game with a pick-n-roll that ended in a slam by Zach Smith followed by a few failed trips down the floor by both teams, TTU held an early 6-0 lead before
Jordan Evans knocked down WT's first points of the night on a three from the corner. Tech responded with a basket before
Joseph Prince knocked down one from the wing followed by a Tech miss that led directly to a
David Chavlovich three from the wing to make it 9-8 Buffs. The hot shooting continued with a
Jordan Evans three followed by a Red Raider travel to send the teams into the first media timeout with WT leading 12-8.
Jeff Bonner banked one off of the glass after the break to stretch the lead to 14-8 before Tech responded with six straight points to tie the game at 14-14 with 13 minutes left in the half, Aaron Ross nailed a transition three from the top of the key to force a WT timeout at 12:36 with Tech leading 17-14. Tech nailed a pair from the charity stripe before a Prince bank shot three ended the Red Raider run to send the teams into the second media with Tech leading 19-17 with 11:44 left.
Prince hit one of two from the line after the timeout followed by a pair of TTU free throws, Chavlovich nailed a floater in the late before Tech answered with a transition three from the win to extend their lead to 24-20. Tech nailed another three to make it 27-20 followed by an Evans three to answer with 8:42 left, Devaughtah Williams made a great play with an offensive board and putback followed by a WT foul to head into the media timeout with the Red Raiders leading 31-23 with 7:53 left.
The Red Raiders knocked down a pair from the line after the timeout followed by a WT miss that led to a Toddrick Gotcher three from the wing to make it 34-23,
Ryan Quaid registered his first points of the game as Prince found the freshman for the backdoor and-one to cut the lead to 34-26. Tech hit one of two from the charity stripe followed by a Prince three from the wing to make it 35-29, two more Tech free throws extended their lead to eight before a
Garrett Brockman layup with 4:29 left. WT continued to commit fouls as the Red Raiders knocked down two more from the charity stripe before Prince answered with a Prince floater on the baseline to cut the lead to 39-33 to head into the final media timeout of the half with TTU leading 39-33 with 3:24 left.
The teams traded misses after the break before Prince hit a shot from just inside the arch with 2:05 left, Tech responded with an alley-oop slam followed by a free throw to extend the TTU lead to 42-35. Prince nailed a three from the top of the key to stay hot from the floor before another WT foul helped the Red Raiders hit two from the charity stripe to give them the 44-38 lead with 1:06 left. The Buffs committed a turnover followed by another foul that allowed another Tech point to make it 45-38, Prince found
Antonio Ferreira at the top of the key for a three followed what looked to be a steal and score for the Buffs but an errant pass ended the half with the Red Raiders leading 45-41.
In the first half, the Buffs went 15-37 (40.5%) from the floor including 9-25 (36%) from deep and 2-4 (50%) from the free throw line to go along with 13 rebounds (four offensive, nine defensive), 15 fouls, 11 assists, four turnovers and three steals. Prince went 6-10 (60%) from the floor for the Buffs in the first half including 4-7 (57.1%) from deep to lead WT with 17 points followed by Evans with nine and Chavlovich with five.
The Red Raiders went 12-24 (50%) from the floor in the first half including 4-9 (44.4%) from three and 17-22 (77.3%) from the charity stripe to go along with 22 rebounds (five offensive, 17 defensive), eight fouls, eight assists, seven turnovers, three blocks and three steals. Gotcher led Texas Tech at the half as he went 4-4 (100%) from the floor including a perfect 3-3 from deep to lead the Red Raiders with 13 points at the half followed by Ross with seven and C.J. Williamson with five.
The teams traded misses to start the second half before Chavlovich found Bonner for the transition layup to cut the lead to 45-43, Golightly Jr. stole an inbound pass that led to a Tech foul and a three-point play by Evans to give the Buffs the 46-45 lead with 19:00 left. The teams traded misses before a Tech steal and slam gave them the lead at 47-46, a Red Raiders swat led to a fast break layup with 17:11 left before Chavlovich found Prince on the fast break layup for the three-point play to tie the game at 49-49. Williams knocked down a questionable three that was left a trey at the media timeout at Tech led 52-49 with 15:52 left.
Tech used their inside game to stretch the lead to 54-49 with a Norense Odiase layup, Chavlovich found Bonner on the fast break layup followed by a pair of TTU missed on the charity stripe. Odiase connected on the jump hook in the lane to stretch the Tech lead to 56-51 followed by a WT turnover that led by a Ross three from the top of the key with 13:57 left. Chavlovich answered with a three from the corner that led to a WT timeout with 13:47 on the clock, the teams traded misses after the media timeout before Chavlovich kissed the floater off of the glass with a TTU foul to head into a media timeout with the Red Raiders leading 60-56 with 11:51 on the clock.
Chavlovich missed the free throw after the break and the Red Raiders answered with a Gotcher three from the wing to extend the lead to 63-56, a WT miss led to another Gotcher long ball from the same spot as the Red Raiders ran their lead to 66-56 with 10:49 left. Golightly Jr. knocked down two from the line to stall the Tech run before Jordan Jackson hit a contested jumper before
Ryan Quaid hit a jumper to cut the lead to 68-60. Walton fouled out of the game on a Tech three point attempt as they connected on all three from the line followed by a steal and score as Chavlovich found Golightly Jr. under the basket at 71-62. Tech hit two more from the charity stripe followed by a WT turnover that led to a foul heading into a media timeout with TTU matching their largest lead of the game at 73-62 with 7:58 left.
Tech connected on one of two free throws after the break before Bonner fouled out of the game with 7:56 remaining, TTU hit one of two again before Quaid found Chavlovich for the three on the wing to make it 75-65. Isaiah Manderson used his size for the easy bucket followed by a WT miss that led to a Williams fast break layup with 6:39 left, the Buffs missed again followed by another WT foul that led to two TTU points to make it 81-65. Zach Smith connected on a putback dunk to run the lead to 83-65 before Brockman hit two from the charity stripe with 5:24 left, TTU answered with a pair of free throws followed by a WT miss that led to Williams layup to run the lead to 87-67 heading into the last media timeout with 3:19 left.
The Buffs committed their 11 turnover of the game right after the break before a Brockman steal led to a Golightly Jr. offensive board and layup, Tech committed another turnover followed by another Golightly Jr. layup to cut the lead to 87-71. The Red Raiders answered with a Manderson layup before Golightly Jr. registered another layup heading into a WT timeout with TTU leading 89-73 with 1:43 remaining. Tech hit one of two from the line followed by a WT turnover before a
Rylan Gerber steal, Brockman hit one of two from the charity stripe followed by one at the line from Tech to make it 91-74. The teams traded misses to end the game, 91-74.
The Buffs went 27-72 (37.5%) from the floor including 11-38 (28.9%) from deep and 9-15 (60%) from the free throw line to go along with 30 rebounds (12 offensive, 18 defensive), 29 fouls, 18 assists, 12 turnovers and eight steals on the night. Prince led the Buffs in scoring with 20 points followed by Chavlovich with 13, Evans with 12 and Golightly Jr. with 10.
Texas Tech went 26-49 (53.1%) from the floor including 8-19 (42.1%) from deep and 31-45 (69.9%) from the charity stripe to go along with 43 rebounds (nine offensive, 34 defensive), 21 fouls, 16 assists, 15 turnovers, six blocks and six steals in the game. Gotcher led all players with 23 points on the night followed by Williams with 14 and Ross with 10.
NEXT TIME OUTThe Buffs open their 2015-16 campaign on the road this weekend as they head to Durango, Colorado for the Skyhawk Regional Challenge with matchups against host Fort Lewis on Friday night at 8:30 p.m. followed by New Mexico Highlands on Saturday night with tipoff set for 9:00 p.m. from Whalen Gymnasium.
BROWN'S POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTESOn Joseph Prince's early game performance … "Joseph came in off the bench, and he can really score the basketball. We got him out in space, and he can create a little bit. We are probably not going to see the size that Tech had, and he can get into the lane. He is a very good athlete and player. He is starting to really understand team basketball. He still has a little way to go but is going to be a very special player for us."
On regular season starting this weekend … "We had a good attitude in the locker room right now. We are disappointed, we wanted to win the game obviously. I tried to emphasize with them that it is just an exhibition game, win or lose, it doesn't matter. We want to work on some things. I think we have to clean up our offense a little bit. We did a pretty good job on defense, but it is just hard to stop those guys. We are just a little bit outmatched, but again we played hard. I felt we had a great effort."
On David Chavlovich's performance … "He played pretty well. He is going to make those shots. He had a little bit of an off night shooting. To get back into rhythm, it is tough coming off a knee injury like that. In practice, there are some days where he looks good and some days where he looks sluggish. He is really starting to come into his own. He has a big year ahead of him because a lot of teams are going to key on him. Having
Joseph Prince and having
Jordan Evans and being able to stretch the floor is going to be really big for us."
Closing Statement … "I'll tell you what, to go and coach against Tubby Smith, I'm probably beating a dead horse, but the guy is just first class. After the game, he came over and said, 'I would like to talk to you about a few things, what we did during the game.' I said, you have got to be kidding me. He is just first class, so is Joe (Esposito) and Vince (Taylor), all those guys over there. They have a lot of tools and I think he is going to have a great season this year."
