Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders dispatch short-handed Baylor

The No. 15 Texas Tech basketball team easily dispatched a short-handed Baylor team 86-61 Saturday in Lubbock for its fourth-straight win.

Any time a game ends with your walk-on players showboating, there can’t be much to complain about. In a game that will forever be remembered for the alley-oop lob from walk-on Andrew Sorrells to fellow walk-on Avery Benson that drew the wrath of Chris Beard in the waning seconds, the Texas Tech basketball team had no problems with Baylor in an 86-61 victory.

Winning its fourth-consecutive game, Tech moved to 21-5 on the season and 9-4 in Big 12 play. Lubbock native Jarrett Culver led the way with an effortless 18 points while Davide Moretti added 17 and Tariq Owens 11.

Facing a Baylor team playing without its leading scorer Makai Mason and starting guard King McClure, Tech was never truly challenged. After a sluggish start that saw the home team go 1-8 from the floor to begin the game, the Red Raiders found the shooting touch that has carried them over the last two weeks.

Tech knocked down 12-29 shots (41.4%) from behind the 3-point arc, the second-consecutive game in which the Red Raiders drained 12. Five Red Raiders hit a 3-pointer including Moretti who went 4-8 and Culver who was 3-6.

It was quite the reversal from the first meeting between the Red Raiders and the Bears this season. In Baylor’s 73-62 win in Waco last month, Tech went just 5-15 from deep while the Bears hit 11-29.

But Saturday in Lubbock, Baylor struggled, making just 9-25 (36%) from outside. Overall, the Bears were just 17-49 from the field. Making matters worse for Scott Drew’s team was their 19 turnovers as they clearly missed their starting backcourt.

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Mason, who is averaging 15.6 points per game this year, had 16 against Tech in January and King added eight of his own. With both out Saturday, the offensive burden fell on the shoulders of true freshman Jared Butler, who had 19 against Tech in Waco.

And in round two with the Red Raiders, he again led his team in scoring with 16 points. Sophomore guard Mario Kegler added 15 but no other Bear had more than eight points.

As for the Red Raiders, when they were not hitting shots from deep, they were making their living at the free-throw line. Tech went 30-35 (85.7%) at the stripe doing a much better job of attacking the Baylor zone with crisp passing and dribble penetration than they did in Waco when they attempted just 19 free throws.

But after the game, all the focus was on the garbage time alley-oop. Beard immediately grabbed Sorrells after the buzzer and made him apologize to Drew in front of the scorer’s table. And, according to the Texas Tech radio postgame show, he made both players apologize to Drew outside the Baylor locker room.

Of course, the play sparked spirited debate on social media. Some agreed with Beard that the play was unnecessary and in bad taste but others were quick to point out that on the possession, Baylor was trapping and still playing defense.

It is hard to fault Sorrells and Benson for wanting to make the most of their rare opportunities to play in a Big 12 game and one must wonder if there would have been any outrage had Benson ended that possession with a 15-foot jumper instead of a tomahawk slam. Of course, where one stands on the issue is likely to depend on where one went to school, as is almost always the case in the world of college athletics.

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Ultimately, this is the type of controversy Texas Tech fans can live with. When all you have to complain about is the fact that two players averaging less than five minutes of action per game made a highlight-reel play to punctuate dominate win, you know that your basketball team is locked in.

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