Red Raider Recap: No. 8 Kansas 74, No. 6 Tech 72

Saturday, February 24

United Supermarkets Arena

3:15 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

No. 8 Kansas

Red Raider Recap: No. 8 Kansas 74, No. 6 Tech 72

February 24, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Highlights Coach Beard Opening Statement, Jarrett Culver, Zhaire Smith Coach Beard Press Conference Photo Gallery

The Red Raiders have their 17-game home winning streak come to a close.

LUBBOCK, Texas – Jarrett Culver and Zhaire Smith combined for 38 points, but the No. 6 Texas Tech men's basketball team was handed a hard-fought 74-72 loss to No. 8 Kansas in-front of its fourth sellout of the season on Saturday at the United Supermarkets Arena.

The setback placed the Red Raiders (22-7, 10-6 Big 12) into a second-place tie with West Virginia, while Kansas (23-6, 12-4 Big 12) secured a share of its 14th consecutive Big 12 regular season championship.

"Sometimes in life you have great days, but you might not have the outcome you want at the end," Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. "Today was a great day for our program. We're in a position to compete for the Big 12 Championship in late February. We had ESPN College GameDay here, and we had an unbelievable crowd. (Our program) can't thank Lubbock enough; our season ticket holders and our students. I would have done anything I could personally to get the win for everyone today. I apologize we didn't get it done, but I won't apologize for our effort. I'm so proud of our players. I thought we just competed."

The Culver-Smith duo knocked down 13 of their 22 shot attempts and teamed up for nine rebounds.

For Smith, it marked his seventh straight game in double figures and his second-highest career scoring output. He also knocked down 8-of-10 at the free throw line. Culver did a majority of his damage on four three-pointers.

Brandone Francis tacked on 11 points, three rebounds and two assists followed by Tommy Hamilton IV's seven points. The pair combined for 18 of Texas Tech's 22 bench points.

Keenan Evans added six points, six rebounds and three assists whereas Norense Odiase chipped in six points and four rebounds. Zach Smith saw his first action after missing 13 games with an injury.

As a team, the Red Raiders produced a 24-for-56 shooting clip and hit on 8-for-24 from beyond the three-point line. Texas Tech was 16-for-23 on free throws and held a 34-29 rebounding advantage.

The Jayhawks buried 26-of-52 from the floor, 11-of-25 on treys and 11-of-16 at the charity stripe. Devonte' Graham pumped in 18 of his game-leading 26 points after halftime and provided a pair of clutch baskets down the stretch. Svi Mykhailiuk notched a solid all-around effort with 21 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Texas Tech used a 9-1 spurt to turn a 67-59 deficit at the 4:40 mark into a 68-68 tie. The run began with Zach Smith finding Zhaire Smith for a two-handed jam. Then, Culver delivered a three-ball on the left wing to pull the score to 67-64 with 3:52 left.

Zhaire Smith canned a midrange jumper from the right elbow and soared through the lane for an acrobatic dunk to knot the score at 68-68 with 2:32 left. He made an outstanding help-side defensive play with a block shot on KU's next possession.

The Jayhawks maintained possession after an official review. Graham went to work with a stepback jumper off the dribble over an outstretched Zach Smith and threw in an off-balanced layup that got a friendly bounce on a pair of late shot clock situations to give Kansas the lead for good.

Graham and Mykhauliuk split a pair of free throws inside the closing 20 seconds. A Culver driving layup with 1.8 seconds to go brought the final score to 74-72.

"We outrebounded Kansas, it was just a game of making shots," Beard said. "You have to credit the opponent. This is why their coach is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. It's why a lot of their players go to the NBA and why they win our conference every year. We were apart of the fight, and we intend to be apart of the fight as we build the program. Today was one of those days when we're just getting started.
I just want to say how much respect I have for our team. I thought we competed and played so hard today. It was just one of those games that came down to who makes the last shot. Kansas made some big time shots before the shot clock went off. I told the guys I was really proud of them, and we have a lot of basketball left. Maybe in March, we will win some of these games when we're on the other side of it. Again, congratulations to Kansas."

Kansas relied on the three-ball early during the first half. The Jayhawks scored the game's opening eight points on Mykhailiuk and Graham triples coupled with an Udoka Azubuike dunk.

Kansas led by as many as 11 points at 37-26 with 4:45 on the clock following a Mykhailiuk tipin. The Red Raiders closed the margin to 41-37 at the break headed by a pair of Culver three-pointers and a Zhaire Smith high-flying tipin of his own.

The two teams played within two possessions to start the second 20 minutes. The Jayhawks crept ahead and stretched the score to 60-52 at the 8:30 mark as Malik Newman and Graham sank treys 60 seconds apart.

"To say they were just struggling and not mention us would be disrespecting our guys," Beard said. "We were guarding. We made a couple of adjustments at halftime. We came out and played really hard in the second half. I would like to think that some of their misses was our defense playing better. Certainly, there's a mathematical deal in this game. They are not going to make every shot like they were early in the game. From our point of view, we would like to speed them up a little bit more. We weren't able to do that until late in the game. It's just amazing that they have those players play 40 and 39 minutes, their strength coach must be a magician. I have a lot of respect for how tough they are. In our program, we pride ourselves on mental toughness. I would like to think that people think we are a pretty tough team, and I don't think Kansas gets enough credit for how tough they are. Their identity is in their talent, their hall of fame coach and their great home court. They also have a big-time toughness to them and that's what Coach Self's teams were known for at Tulsa. It's almost like when the players get better you almost forget, but that's Bill Self. For Graham to play 40 minutes and the way he played late, still making shots with tired legs, they're a tough team."

UP NEXT
Texas Tech heads into the final week of the regular season and faces a short turnaround at No. 21 West Virginia on Monday. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. CT from the WVU Coliseum. The game will be televised by ESPN2 and the ESPN app.

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 by liking TexasTechMBB on Facebook along with following @TexasTechMBB on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.