Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders sloppy but still crush Houston Baptist

Despite playing a sloppy game on both ends of the floor, the Texas Tech basketball team still managed to crush Houston Baptist 103-74 on Wednesday in Midland.

While the No. 11 Texas Tech basketball team avoided the type of upset that befell No. 1 Kentucky on Tuesday night, its 103-74 win over Houston Baptist was far from crisp. Head coach Chris Beard saw his team turn the ball over 23 times and allow the Huskies to hit 10 shots from 3-point range in the season’s first game played outside of United Supermarkets Arena.

True freshman Jahmi’us Ramsey led the team with 25 points, 20 of which came in the first half, to go along five rebounds, all of which also came before intermission. Meanwhile, senior T.J. Holyfield put up 21 points and Kyler Edwards scored 13 as the Red Raiders eclipsed the 100-point mark for the first time since November of 2017.

But the first two minutes of the game was a disaster for the Red Raiders as Houston Baptist hit its first four shots for a 9-0 lead prompting Beard to call a timeout and lay into his team. Then, he inserted grad transfer Chris Clarke into the game and everything changed.

https://twitter.com/TexasTechMBB/status/1194790383219118080?s=20

In the next two minutes of action, the Red Raiders answered with their own 9-0 run to tie the game. In that span, Clarke had two steals (both of which led to fast-break opportunities) and an assist and he was the catalyst that his head coach needed him to be.

In all, Tech put together a 25-4 run over a five-and-a-half-minute span to take the lead for good. But the performance, while dominating, was far from optimal.

The Red Raiders often struggled with their defensive rotations leading to a 39.4% shooting night from the Huskies, who fell to 0-3 on the season. Many of those open looks came from behind the arc as HBU shot 38.5% from deep.

Fortunately for the Red Raiders, HBU lived up to its reputation of being a poor defensive team. Tech shot 59.7% from the field as a team and hit 46.7% from 3-point range. Ramsey was a perfect 3-3 from long-range and Edwards was 3-6 while Holyfield provided the Red Raiders their other make from outside the arc.

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The game plan for HBU appeared to be to try and turn this game into a frantic up-and-back affair and at times, Tech’s young roster was sucked into that strategy. But in the end, the Huskies simply lacked the caliber of athlete needed to run with the Red Raiders and Tech was able to pull away.

HBU was led by 20 points from senior Jalon Gates. The 6-foot guard had 16 points in the first half and nailed 5-9 shots from 3-point range for the game. Meanwhile, junior guard Ian Dubose added 17 points as the only other Husky in double-figures.

This game will certainly provide some teaching moments for Beard and his staff. But fortunately, those moments will come from a victory as Tech took care of business against an overmatched opponent.

At some point soon, the Red Raiders will face a team capable of making them pay for their mistakes. The first instance will likely come on Thanksgiving night when Beard’s team faces Iowa in the Las Vegas Invitational.

There are only two games before that for Beard to iron out as many of his team’s wrinkles as possible. Of course, only by playing more competitive teams will this young Red Raider squad begin to be forged into the type of team that it must become in order to compete for a Big 12 title.

The Red Raiders do not play again until November 21st when they take on Tennessee State in Lubbock. Then, a game against Long Island University on the 24th proceeds the trip to Vegas where Tech will face the Hawkeyes and either Creighton or San Diego State on consecutive nights.

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After what we saw Wednesday night in Midland, there will be plenty for Beard and his staff to focus on over the next week. With eight days of nothing but practice in their future, this team had at least be thankful that they are going into this time after a win, regardless of how sloppy it may have been.

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