Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders survive Sooners, on to title game

So it appears that the key to solving the Texas Tech basketball team’s late-game execution woes is for the Red Raiders to end the game on defense rather than on offense.  That was the case on Friday night as Kevin McCullar came up with a strip of Oklahoma’s Umoja Gibson as time expired to preserve a one-point win sending the Red Raiders to a place the program has been only once in its history, the Big 12 title game.

Despite sleepwalking their way through the second half of Friday’s Big 12 Tournament semifinal, Tech is headed to the conference title game for the first time since 2005.  But if Tech doesn’t put forth a better effort than it showed in the final 20 minutes of the 56-55 win, capturing the program’s first-ever conference tournament crown will be unlikely.

Outscored by ten points after the intermission, the Red Raiders were, quite frankly, fortunate to survive.  Guard Clarence Nadolny was the beneficiary of a debatable foul call as he drove to the paint with just 0:54 to play and the game even at 54-54.

On the play, OU’s Jalen Hill appeared to have come up with a clean block on Nadolny’s layup attempt but a whistle was blown sending the Red Raider guard to the line.  Still, give Nadolny credit for calmly draining both shots to put his team up by a pair.

Then, more fortune fell Tech’s way on the other end of the floor.  With just eight seconds to play, OU’s Jacob Groves found himself at the line with a chance to tie the game following a Nadolny foul.  But after sinking his first attempt, the Eastern Washington transfer would brick the second shot.

A wild final sequence would ensue as Grove’s miss was batted back out to mid-court only to be gathered in by Gibson, OU’s leading scorer.  But as Gibson drove to the paint for a potential shot at a game-winner, Tech’s Kevin McCullar would strip him of the ball allowing time to expire and the Red Raiders to escape with the win.

It was nearly an epic collapse by the Red Raiders, who led the game by 13 points in the first half.  Shooting just 27.2% in the second half and scoring only 19 points in the final 20 minutes, Tech endured another lengthy scoring drought, this one being over seven minutes in duration.  That came just six days after this team scored only two points in the final two minutes of a 52-51 loss at Oklahoma State.  That’s certainly a concern with the high-powered Kansas Jayhawks up next for the Red Raiders in the title game.

But if the Tech squad that came out of the locker room to open the game shows up on Saturday afternoon, anything could happen against KU.  Taking a 37-26 lead into the break, Tech shot a blistering 65.2% from the floor and 5-9 from 3-point range in the game’s opening 20 minutes.

Kevin Obanor and Davion Warren were the only two Red Raiders in double figures with each scoring eleven points.  Meanwhile, Adonis Arms and Bryson Williams both had nine points.  No other Red Raider scored more than six on the day.

Sometimes in the postseason, a team has to have luck reside on its side in order to survive and advance.  There are simply times when a team doesn’t have its “A” game and in those moments, championship teams have to find a way to win, even if that means relying on a few fortunate breaks.

Thankfully, the breaks went Tech’s way in this one because an argument could be made that OU outplayed Tech on Friday.  The Sooners had an edge on the glass of 36-24 and made 12 free throws to Tech’s 8.

But it was one of the six missed OU free throws that proved to be the game’s turning point.  And fortunately, when the Red Raiders needed one last defensive stand, McCullar was able to come up big.

In March, they don’t all have to be pretty, they just have to be victories.  And on Friday, the Red Raiders got one of those ugly wins that look so beautiful in the record books thanks to a key defensive stand.