Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders struggle but survive scare vs. ACU

Wednesday night in Lubbock, the Texas Tech basketball team struggled mightily to put away Abilene Christian in a 51-44 win.

These days, 51-44 is a score that most might associate with a Big 12 football game. And at times, Wednesday’s Texas Tech basketball game with Abilene Christian more closely resembled a football game than a game played on the hardwood.

With the two teams combining to shoot just 31.8% from the field, offense was certainly at a premium. Abilene Christian actually had the edge in field goal shooting going 16-45 (35.6%), while Tech was just 12-43 (27.9%).

What’s more, the teams went a combined 8-33 (24.2%) from beyond the arc with Tech being just 2-15. But where the Red Raiders managed to pull away was at the free-throw line, though that too was a struggle.

On a night when Chris Beard’s team shot just 67.6% from the stripe, it was volume, rather than accuracy, that was their greatest weapon. Making 25-37 free throws, Tech held a 19-point edge over the Wildcats at the line.

For the second-straight game, it was Kyler Edwards who was Tech’s offensive leader as the junior scored 19 points. However, he was far from efficient from the floor going just 4-12. But by making 9 of his 10 free-throw attempts, Edwards was able to give his team just enough offense to survive. And each of his points was needed due to the struggles of Mac McClung.

After struggling Saturday against Grambling, the Red Raiders’ leading scorer was not his usual dynamic self. Going 1-11 from the field, he put up a season-low eight points. It was the first time this year that he failed to crack double-digits on the scoreboard.

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But with the offense stuck in neutral for most of the night, thanks in large part to an aggressive and quick ACU defense, the Red Raiders were able to rely on their defense once again. And it started by doing a great job on Abilene Christian’s top scorer.

7-footer Kolton Kohler entered the game averaging over 11 points per game but he was held to just one point on 0-3 shooting from the field. All night, Tech denied the ball to Kohler and when he did get his hands on it, he was swarmed by the Red Raider guards who helped forward Marcus Santos-Silva keep him from getting comfortable in the paint.

Meanwhile, Coryon Mason led the Wildcats with 14 points on 5-8 shooting. But none of his teammates were able to get to double-digits as Tech put the clamps on yet another opponent.

Though the Red Raiders won, this game was far from reassuring with Big 12 play beginning next week. This was the second-straight outing in which Tech had to grind out a win over a team from a non-major conference and there are reasons to wonder if the Red Raiders are ready for the uptick in competition that will come with the Kansas Jayhawks’ visit to Lubbock on December 17.

For instance, if this team is going to struggle to score against Abilene Christian, will it be able to put up enough points to beat the Jayhawks or Mountaineers…much less No. 2 Baylor? And on those nights in Big 12 play when McClung struggles, is there enough offense around him to take up the slack?

Those concerns were already on the minds of Texas Tech basketball fans prior to Wednesday’s game and after the way the Red Raiders struggled to take care of ACU, they are far from assuaged. Beard’s team will return to action Saturday afternoon against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in what will be the final tuneup of the year before business picks up. Hopefully, that game will be a lot less stressful and a lot more fun to watch than the close call the Red Raiders survived on Wednesday.

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