Red Raider Recap: No. 20 WVU 84, No. 12 Tech 74

Monday, February 26

Morgantown, W Va.

8:00 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

22-8 (10-7B12)

No. 20 West Virginia

22-8 (11-6B12)

Texas Tech

No. 2/20 West Virginia

Red Raider Recap: No. 20 WVU 84, No. 12 Tech 74

February 26, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Highlights Coach Beard Press Conference

The Red Raiders will wrap up the regular season with Senior Day versus TCU on Saturday.

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Jarrett Culver and Niem Stevenson pumped in 30 of their combined 50 points during the second half en route to career scoring performances, but the No. 12 Texas Tech men's basketball team was dealt an 84-74 loss by No. 20 West Virginia on Monday at WVU Coliseum.

The Red Raiders (22-8, 10-7 Big 12) dropped their fourth straight decision and trail the Mountaineers (22-8, 11-6 Big 12) by a game for second place in the Big 12 standings.

Texas Tech was playing without seniors Keenan Evans, Justin Gray and Zach Smith who have combined for 3,237 career points and 279 career starts.

"Obviously, you can't win a Big 12 game when you get down 16-0. At that point, you just try to give yourself a chance, and I thought we did," Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. "We cut it to down to seven points and then had back-to-back turnovers. These Big 12 games are always long games. No lead is safe, and no deficit is not manageable. We showed a lot of fight throughout the game, but we just have to play better. Two things go on in these games – you've got to play hard and fight to compete, that's a given, and you've got to play well. Then, you have to have multiple people play well. Tonight, it was just too much West Virginia."

For Stevenson, he garnered a career-high 24 points on a 9-for-20 shooting effort. He knocked down a career-best five three-pointers. Stevenson's previous career scoring mark was a 22-point effort against then No. 3 Kansas on Feb. 11, 2017.

Culver amassed his first career double-double with career marks of 26 points and 12 rebounds. He was 8-of-13 from the floor, 3-of-5 from three-point territory and 7-of-10 at the foul line. Culver's previous scoring high was a 25-point performance versus Oklahoma State on Jan. 23.

Zhaire Smith tacked on 12 points and five rebounds to extend his run to eight consecutive games in double figures. Davide Moretti secured five points and three rebounds whereas Josh Webster dished out a Big 12 season's best three assists during extended action.

As a team, Texas Tech was 24-of-55 from the field and hit on 10-of-24 from three-point territory. The Red Raiders were 16-of-25 on free throws and worked their way to a 40-32 rebounding advantage.

West Virginia registered a 29-for-59 shooting performance and connected on 10-for-23 on treys. The Mountaineers banged home 16-for-27 at the charity stripe and scored 22 of the game's 31 points off turnovers.

WVU's senior duo of Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles, Jr. led the way for the Mountaineers during its final home game. Carter turned in 21 points, seven assists and three steals followed by Miles, Jr.'s 18 points and four assists. Esa Ahmad secured a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Sagaba Konate notched 16 points and three blocks.

West Virginia fired out to an early 16-0 lead during the game's opening 4:23 off the clock. The run was keyed by three dunks courtesy of Ahmad and Konate coupled with Carter and Miles, Jr. treys.

The Red Raiders trimmed the deficit down to 35-28 at the 3:07 mark after a seven-point run of their own fueled by a trio of freshmen. Smith got things going with two free throws, Culver went coast-to-coast for a driving layup and Moretti canned a three-pointer.

West Virginia took a 42-29 lead into the locker room. Carter and Miles, Jr. tallied 11 points apiece and drained nine of their 15 shot attempts.

The Red Raiders got the margin back within single digits in the first 82 seconds of the second half. Culver and Brandone Francis sank three-pointers to bring the score to 44-37 with 18:38 left.

West Virginia countered with consecutive treys to push the edge back to double figures where it would sit for the remainder of the game.

"I didn't think we guarded tonight like we have," Beard sad. "They score 84, but Coach (Bob Huggins) was very kind in the game. He could have scored 100 tonight from where I was sitting. I was really disappointed in our defense. Offensively, we just would have liked to attack more. I guess we ended up shooting a decent percentage but a lot of our turnovers killed us. We've got to have more offensive balance. Culver and Niem (Stevenson) had big nights. We've got to get Zhaire more shots. Credit West Virginia, I think they're the reason we didn't play well tonight."

UP NEXT
Texas Tech closes out its 18-game Big 12 slate against TCU on Saturday. Tipoff for Senior Day is slated for 3 p.m. CT from the United Supermarkets Arena. 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.