Almost single-handedly taking down the Aggies
Regardless of the sport, Texas Tech fans revel in taking down the Texas A&M Aggies. And in Ross’ senior year, he helped the Red Raiders do just that on a night when he got little help from his teammates.
Entering the game 9-4, Tech faced a stiff test on its home floor from the 10-1 Aggies of Billie Gillespie. But the Red Raiders prevailed 70-56 thanks to a huge game from Ross.
With 27 points, 8 rebounds, three steals, an assist, and a block, the point guard saved the day on an afternoon when the rest of his team shot just 36.1% from the field. Overall, Ross hit 11 of 15 shots (73.3%).
Scoring 38.5% of Texas Tech’s points, Ross was one of just three Red Raiders in double digits. The other two were Martin Zeno (18 points) and Darryl Dora (11 points).
Meanwhile, the rest of the Red Raiders struggled. The other eight players that saw the floor that day added just 13 total points, most of which came from Jarius Jackson, who had nine.
Defensively, Ross was also fantastic. His three steals helped keep at bay a Texas A%M team that entered the game second in the Big 12 in field goal percentage at 50%. Thanks to the Red Raider defense, (of which Ross was certainly the leader) the Aggies turned the ball over 15 times and shot just 2-13 from beyond the arc.
There’s no better way to endear oneself to Texas Tech basketball or football…or baseball…or team goat racing fans than to beat the Aggies and players who come up big against the most hated rival in the history of Red Raider athletics are certain to see their favorability rating soar in the Hub City. That was the case with Ross who almost single-handedly beat the Aggies on a day when his head coach Bob Knight said that if he would have known that his team was going to play as poorly as it did, he would have just gone hunting.