Red Raider Recap: Texas 61, Tech 52

Wednesday, March 8

Kansas City, Mo.

8:30 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

Texas

March 09, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Game 32 - Texas Tech - Texas Game32TexasNotes Quotes- Texas Tech - Texas

By: The Red Raiders have dropped four consecutive opening round games at the Big 12 Championships.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Texas Tech men's basketball team held a double digit lead with 10 minutes remaining, but Texas closed the game with 30 of the last 40 points to claim a 61-52 decision during Wednesday's opening round at the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championships.

Texas Tech (18-14) was unable to secure its first Phillips 66 Big 12 Championships win since the 2012-13 season, while the Longhorns (11-21) advance to face No. 2 seed and No. 11 ranked West Virginia in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

"As disappointed as our ending is, the bottom line is it's an ending," Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. "I choose to reflect on the positives. It starts with our five seniors, I've got a lot of respect for those guys. Few of them endured a coaching change. That's tough, but they gave us everything they had this year. A couple of them chose to spend their senior season at Texas Tech where they had other options. I will be forever indebted to those guys helping us get the program started. There will be a day in the near future where in this same tournament we're winning games and doing the press conference first and not second. I'll think back to these five seniors that helped us lay the foundation this first year."

Making his second start of the season, Matthew Temple registered 10 points on a flawless 4-of-4 from the floor sparked by a pair of three-pointers. Temple's 10 points was his third-highest scoring output against a Big 12 opponent.

Anthony Livingston pumped in all 10 of his points off the bench in the second half. For Livingston, he returned to double figures for the first time since the TCU game on Feb. 7.

Keenan Evans tacked on a team-leading 11 points coupled with four rebounds and two assists. He extended his run to 20 consecutive games in double figures.

Zach Smith registered six points and six rebounds whereas Niem Stevenson added six points and eight rebounds.

Justin Gray and Aaron Ross were limited to a combined six points and misfired on 10 of their 12 shot attempts.

Shadell Millinghaus returned to the lineup for the first time since the Auburn game back on Nov. 22. He provided a spark with three steals and two assists. The three steals were tied for third-most by a Texas Tech player at the Big 12 Championships.

The Red Raiders were 21-of-59 from the field, 5-of-19 on three-pointers and 5-of-8 at the free throw line. The eight free throw attempts matched a season-low for Texas Tech.

Texas countered with a 20-for-50 shooting performance and made 5-for-23 from three-point territory. The Longhorns made 16-for-20 on the foul line which included a 11-for-13 clip during the second half.

Andrew Jones tallied 15 points, five rebounds and four assists followed by Kerwin Roach Jr.'s 13 points to lead Texas.

Ahead 30-28 at the 17:35 mark of the second half, the Red Raiders ripped off 12 of the next 15 points to go up by double figures. Livingston began the charge with a trey on the right baseline Then, Livingston and Evans executed on high-low action which resulted in an Evans layup.

Livingston buried a turnaround jumper and canned another three-ball on the right baseline. Evans rattled home a midrange jumper to make it 42-31 with 10:35 to go.

Texas made its move ignited and capped by a Roach dunk. Sandwiched between was a six-point run at the free throw line which included a questionable intentional foul call by Paul Janssen issued to Zach Smith when he made a play on the ball on a Roach transition layup with 5:30 left. The free throws gave the Longhorns the lead and the ball.

Texas Tech trimmed a five-point deficit down to one on an Evans jumper at the 3:21 mark. On the ensuing possession, Texas received a three-pointer by Mareik Isom. The Longhorns salted the game away with a 5-of-6 mark at the free throw line inside the final 57 seconds.

The Red Raiders led for the entire opening half and started the game on a 7-0 run. Evans got a cutting layup, Temple banged home a three-pointer and Smith soared for a highlight-reel, one-handed dunk.

Texas Tech led by as many as 12 points in the first half when Millinghaus converted one of his steals into a layup to bring the score to 23-11 at the 5:06 mark. The Red Raiders would go the remainder of the stanza without a field goal which enabled Texas to bring the halftime score to 26-20.

"It always takes some time to reflect and you have to be careful to talk in times like this," Beard said. "It's the emotions more than intelligence. What I will say is that there's nobody that wants Texas Tech to win more than me. We're going to get it done here. We're going to establish ourselves. We're going to get better. Our returning players are going to get better. We're going to recruit, and I just want everybody to know that loves Texas Tech basketball like I do personally that this kind of season ending is unacceptable and the way we played today is unacceptable. So, we will use this as the starting line. I look forward to greater things ahead, but the expectations of our program is to compete for championships, to compete in the NCAA Tournament and to play better in this tournament. We will do everything we can in the next 364 days to try to improve."

Visit www.TexasTech.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/TexasTechMBB and @TexasTechMBB on Twitter and Instagram.