Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders humbled by Houston in Fort Worth

Sunday in Fort Worth, the Texas Tech basketball program was humbled by the Houston Cougars in a 64-53 loss.

Somedays you are the dog. Some days you are the hydrant. Sunday in Fort Worth, the Texas Tech basketball team was the latter as the Houston Cougars hiked their hind leg and marked the Red Raiders as their property in a 64-53 humbling.

Entering the game undefeated and ranked no. 14 in the nation, the Red Raiders had won their two previous games this year by an average of over 30 points per game. However, those games weren’t against the no. 17 team in the nation. And on Sunday, that no. 17 team thoroughly dominated play for most of the afternoon, especially in the first half.

Playing their way to a 39-17 lead at the intermission, Houston shot 43.8% from the floor and forced 12 Red Raider turnovers. Thanks to those takeaways, they had 11 more field goal attempts than the Red Raiders in that period.

After that onslaught, the game was essentially out of reach despite a gutty comeback attempt by the Red Raiders that saw them cut the deficit to eight points in the final four minutes of the game. But the Cougars were able to keep Chris Beard’s team at arm’s length by hitting free throws down the stretch.

Overall, U of H was 16-21 (76.2%) at the free-throw line. Meanwhile, the Red Raiders managed to go just 13-24 (54.2%).

As if that disparity were not enough to propel the Cougars to the win, the difference behind the 3-point arc was also heavily slanted in Houston’s favor. While the victors shot 8-24 (33.3%) from deep, Tech was just 4-18 (22.2%).

What’s more, Tech also lost the turnover battle. Giving the ball away 18 times (12 in the first half), the Red Raiders had a deficit of three points in points off of turnovers. But keep in mind that in the first half, when Houston essentially put this game out of reach, the Cougars held a 17-5 edge in points off of turnovers.

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In all, the Red Raiders were simply out-played by the Cougars in just about every facet of the game. And it didn’t help that some of Tech’s best players gave their team next to nothing on the night.

Senior forward Marcus Santos-Silva entered the game averaging a double-double and appearing as dominant as any post player to have suited up for the Red Raiders in recent memory. But on Sunday, the 6-foot-7 forward was responsible for just 4 points and 5 rebounds. In fact, he was so ineffective that for a huge portion of the second half, Chris Beard went to a 5-guard lineup.

Meanwhile, with his team desperately needing a leader to help them overcome the Houston swell, Kyler Edwards was also an essential no-show. The most experienced player on the roster when it comes to playing for Chris Beard, the junior from nearby Arlington, Texas gave his team just 5 points on 1-5 shooting and 0-3 at the free-throw line.

Tech was led in scoring by Mac McClung who tried to single-handedly carry his team back into the game in the second half. The transfer from Georgetown scored 16 points but he was just 3-11 from the floor. He made most of his hay at the foul line where he went 10-14.

The only other Red Raider who was a positive factor in the game was true freshman Micah Peavy who finished with 12 points (6-8 shooting) and 4 rebounds before fouling out late in the game. But as for the rest of the team, no player had more than the six points that Wichita State transfer Jamarius Burton provided off the bench.

There’s a reason you play good teams early in the college basketball season. Unlike in football, one loss doesn’t kill a basketball team’s hopes of a title being as there are 68 teams invited to compete in the championship tournament rather than just four.

But if Texas Tech wants to be a serious factor in that event, the Red Raiders are going to have to learn from Sunday’s humbling and come back stronger for it. Because what they found out in Fort Worth is that you can’t just overwhelm good teams with talent. You have to actually outplay them and that’s exactly what Houston did.

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