Texas Tech basketball: Rebounds and free throws costly in loss to Baylor

In Tuesday night’s 57-52 loss to Baylor at home, the Texas Tech basketball team lost a winnable game because of free throws and an inability to rebound the ball.

When trying to beat the No. 4 team in the nation, it’s never a good idea to shoot 41.7% at the free-throw line and give up 17 offensive rebounds to your opponent.  Unfortunately, that’s what the Texas Tech basketball team did Tuesday night in Lubbock in a 57-52 loss to Baylor in Lubbock.

Falling to 10-4 on the year and 1-1 in the Big 12, the No. 22 Red Raiders set a season-low in points and were out-worked and out-muscled like we have seen few times in the Chris Beard era.  What’s more, this was one of the worst shooting efforts we’ve seen from the guys in scarlet and black in a while as well.

Shooting just 20-54 (37%) from the field as a team and just 7-23 (30.4%) from 3-point range for the entire game, Tech had only two players in double figures, Jahmi’us Ramsey and Kyler Edwards.  The freshman Ramsey had 20 points to lead all scorers and he was his team’s only threat from outside as he hit 5-10 shots from 3-point range.

But like the rest of his team, he found life tough in the lane as the swarming Baylor defense packed their defenders around the rim and forced the Red Raiders into extremely difficult shots in traffic.  Ramsey was just 7-17 from the field and he struggled to finish off the dribble, especially in the first half.

In the second half, he got going from deep and it was almost enough to carry the Red Raiders to a win that they, quite frankly, didn’t deserve.  His final 3-pointer of the night pulled Tech to within four points at 47-43 with 4:17 to play but Tech simply could not get over the hump.

That was due in large part to the Bears’ dominance on the glass.  Outrebounding the home team 44-25, Baylor had two players with double-digit rebounds.  Tech had none.

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Guard Mark Vital led Baylor with 13 rebounds, four of the offensive variety, and forward Freddie Gillespie had 10 boards to go along with the only two blocks his team had all night.  Meanwhile, Terrence Shannon Jr. led Tech with 7 boards while the Red Raiders’ leading rebounder, Chris Clarke, had just five, almost four below his season average and his fewest since collecting three in the season-opener.  As a team, the Raiders were able to come up with just 10 offensive boards on a night when that stat told the tale of the game.

Interestingly, Tech’s last gasp came when Clarke did manage to grab an offensive board in the final minute of play.  He put the ball back up for a score and he drew the foul.  His old-fashioned 3-point play pulled the Red Raiders within striking distance at 52-50 with 30 seconds to play but the Bears managed to go 5-8 from the line after that to hold on to their lead.

Speaking of the free-throw line, that’s the other area where Chris Beard saw his team lose this game.  Entering the night as the second-best team in the Big 12 at the line by shooting 74.8%, Tech was just 5-12 against the Bears.  Seven missed free throws…a five-point loss…ballgame.

Even Davide Moretti, a 93.8% shooter at the line missed one of his three free throws in a game in which it seemed as if the poor-shooting bug was spreading through the Red Raider roster like the flu.  It was an awful night for the junior who was 0-6 from deep and 3-11 overall on his way to just 8 points.

This loss snapped a 15-game home winning streak for Tech.  That last time an opponent left Lubbock with a win was January 16th of 2019.  Ironically, in that 68-64 loss to Iowa State, Tech was just 6-15 from the line.

This was an ugly game on both ends of the floor.  Welcome to Big 12 basketball where defense is as popular as bubble screens and RPOs are in football.  Outside of Ramsey’s 3-point barrage, it seemed like the only way for either team to score was to pick up a brick and use it to slug a path to the rim where usually only the most miraculous of shots connected.

Unfortunately, because of the awful shooting night by the home team, there were plenty of bricks to be collected.  And all too often, it was Baylor that was able to come up with them.