Texas Tech basketball: 5 reasons the Red Raiders lost to Providence

Ed Crosswell’s big game

While Watson is Providence’s star, his backup, Ed Crosswell had been nothing more than an afterthought all season.  Then Wednesday night happened.

Entering the game averaging just 1.9 points and 2.6 boards per game, Crosswell had been nothing more than a bit player for Providence.  But against Tech, he put up 11 points on 5-5 shooting and 6 rebounds.  That gave the Friars a huge boost off of the bench.

To understand just how out of character this performance was for the 6-foot-8, 245-pounder, know that, in the 33 previous games of his Providence career, he’s had exactly one double-digit scoring game, a 10-point effort against mighty Fairfield to open last season.  That’s it.

But against Tech, Crosswell looked like the monster that Watson was supposed to be.  He had four offensive rebounds and completely owned the paint, especially early in the game.

In fact, had it not been for his first-half exploits, Tech might have run away with this game.  After Tech jumped out to a 13-5 edge, Crosswell entered the game and quickly scored six points (four off of offensive rebounds) as part of a Providence run to cut the lead to 15-11 and help the Friars get their sea legs under them a bit.

In all, nine of Crosswell’s points came in the first 20 minutes of the game.  And because of his ability to do the dirty work in the first half, Tech was unable to land an early knockout blow thus allowing Providence to hang around in the game and ultimately secure the win.