Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders adjust to life without Cambridge; beat ORU

Texas Tech gets a big scoring night from Warren Washington

Cambridge was Tech's third-leading scorer averaging over 10 points per game when he went down. His scoring punch will be missed but on Tuesday, his fellow Arizona State transfer and good friend, Warren Washington, helped pick up the slack.

Not known as an offensive force, Washington posted 18 points to go along with 12 rebounds in what was his most dominant game in scarlet and black. The question is whether he can maintain that type of scoring punch moving forward.

A large percentage of Washington's offense came on the receiving end of lobs that he finished with dunks. Interestingly, that is also how Cambridge got many of his points this year. Was there a concerted effort to put Washington in more of those situations with Cambridge out or did is just work out that way by chance on Tuesday? Only those on the Tech bench know for sure.

What fans do know is that Washington was as active as he's been all year. He took advantage of a small ORU team and helped Tech hold a 48-29 edge in rebounds.

It was his offense, though, that stood out. Tech seemed to feature Washington in the offense more, though not as a primary weapon. Rather, the focus was to get him the ball in the high post and either let him facilitate before setting a screen or let him back his man down to the low blocks where he could use his back-to-the-basket game.

It will be fascinating to see what version of Washington we get in Big 12 play when he is met by opponents who can match his size and athleticism. But for one game, he picked up the scoring slack by doing things that his team had been asking Cambridge to do instead.