Texas Tech basketball: Missed chances define OT loss to Kentucky

In the Texas Tech basketball team’s 76-74 OT loss to Kentucky on Saturday night, numerous missed chances eventually came back to doom the Red Raiders.

Kentucky hit a half-court shot at the end of the first half. Davide Moretti missed the first of two free throws with a chance to put his team ahead in the final seconds of the second half. Other than that, nothing interesting really happed in the Texas Tech basketball team’s 76-74 loss to Kentucky.

That is of course, unless you consider a furious Texas Tech rally in the final six minutes, controversial officiating decisions, and more swings in emotion than a teeter-totter uninteresting. All sarcasm aside, despite another frustrating loss to a top-flight team, what transpired inside the United Supermarkets was a night that won’t soon be forgotten.

Kyler Edwards led the Red Raiders with 18 points while Moretti chipped in 15 despite shooting just 4-13 from the floor and 1-5 from 3-point range. Unfortunately, though, his night will be remembered for the missed free throw that kept Tech from taking the lead in the final seconds.

Down 64-63 with 18 seconds to play, Moretti went to the line for two shots with a chance to put his team ahead. However, prior to his first attempt, confusion among the officials looked as if it was going to result in T.J. Holyfield being mistakenly sent to the line. After a lengthy back-and-forth, the referees made the right call and gave the two shots to the 91.5% free-throw shooter.

We will never know if the minutes-long confusion and debate impacted the Moretti or not but he promptly stepped to the line and bricked his first attempt. Fortunately, he made the second shot to tie the game and ultimately force overtime.

This was the second time this season that one of the best shooters in the nation had been at the line at the end of a game with a chance to either give Tech the lead or ice the game only to go 1-2. In both instances, his misses resulted in an overtime period where Tech was not able to close out the win.

Against DePaul in December, Moretti missed a free throw with Tech up by three points. On the ensuing possession, the Blue Demons hit a three-pointer to extend the game.

It’s not fair though to place all of the blame on Moretti. At least he fought his way to a useful offensive night.

The same can’t be said for freshman Jahmi’us Ramsey. Tech’s leading scorer was just 3-9 from the field with six points. Meanwhile, grad transfer Chris Clarke was just 2-4 for eight points and T.J. Holyfield managed only five points on 2-6 shooting.

Meanwhile, Kentucky had two stars dominate the game. Forward Nick Richards was a man among boys with 25 points and 14 rebounds while guard Immanuel Quickley scored 21 points thanks to knocking down four of eight shots from behind the arc.

But the rest of the box score would make it seem as if the game went Tech’s way. In fact, if one didn’t know the final score but saw that Tech was only outrebounded 38-32, equaled Kentucky’s 10 offensive rebounds, and forced 20 turnovers, just about everyone would have felt great about the Red Raiders’ chances.

More from Wreck'Em Red

In what was a back-and-forth opening half, Tech seemed to seize the momentum after four straight points from 7-foot freshman Russell Tchewa. But after an inexcusable turnover from Chris Clarke, who tried to make a dangerous inbounds pass to Davide Moretti near mid-court with just 1.6 seconds on the clock, Kentucky inbounded the ball and hit a half-court three-pointer to take a 36-34 lead into the locker room.

That play completely changed the complexion of the game as buckets right before the half are known to do. In the first four minutes of the second half, UK pushed its lead to 48-38 and threatened to run away from the Red Raiders.

In fact, in the first ten minutes of the half, the Wildcats hit six of their first seven shots to build a 55-47 lead. But then, All-SEC point guard Ashton Hagans missed a breakaway layup and that seemed to ignite the Red Raiders and the frenetic crowd.

Tech would close the game on an 11-3 run over the final 6:18 to crawl back into the game. But in OT, the Wildcats jumped back out in front and once more forced Tech to play catch-up.

Scoring the first five points of OT, the visitors again took the game by the throat. But to the Red Raiders’ credit, they again fought back.

Thanks to a 6-0 run, the Red Raiders again tied the game, this time at 72-72 with 1:13 to play. And when Moretti found Kevin McCullar for a layup and foul to tie the game at 74-all with 31 seconds remaining, the momentum was certainly on the side of the home team.

But the freshman missed his free throw and Tech wouldn’t score again. After two free throws from Richards put his team up 76-74 with ten seconds left, Moretti tried to drive the ball to the rim but was stripped of the ball, which then bounced off of his leg and was awarded to the Wildcats with just four-tenths of a second to play.

This marked the third overtime loss for the Red Raiders this year to go along with the DePaul and Creighton games. But this defeat is far more difficult to swallow.

On the one hand, Texas Tech put its best foot forward in just about every aspect from what happened on the court to the energy in the arena and that’s going to pay dividends as far as the program’s national perception. However, a win would have paid even greater dividends as the Red Raiders are still yet to beat a major conference team with a winning record this year.

Next. The all-decade Texas Tech point guards. dark

This game was there for the taking. But in the end, Kentucky made just a few more plays, including a half-court prayer, and came away with the win. Hopefully, that’s what the Red Raiders will finally start to do this season when they return to the court on Wednesday to face West Virginia.

Home/Texas Tech Basketball