Texas Tech races to 25-point halftime lead, blasts Kansas 91-62
The battle for undisputed possession of second place in the Big 12 Conference turned out to be a blowout of monumental proportions.
This time, this season it was 14-time defending regular-season league champion Kansas on the other end of an annihilation: Saturday’s 91-62 thrashing at the hands of Texas Tech, a team KU beat by 16 points on Feb. 2 in Lawrence.
“We prepared all week. Sometimes you are going to get a flat tire. We had a bad game as a team,” KU sophomore guard/forward K.J. Lawson said matter of factly outside the losers’ locker room at United Supermarkets Arena.
The No. 12-ranked Jayhawks (20-7, 9-5) indeed had a bad game (the worst loss in a Big 12 game in the 16-year Bill Self era and second worst loss overall in the Self era) at a bad time.
KU, which is vying for a 15th-straight conference title, fell two games behind Kansas State (with just four games remaining on the Big 12 schedule) ahead of Monday’s 8 p.m. clash against the Wildcats (21-6, 11-3) at Allen Fieldhouse.
That’s right … the Wildcats will leave Lawrence on Monday with either a one-game lead or three-game advantage over KU with three games left to play. Second-place Texas Tech (22-5, 10-4), meanwhile, is just a game behind K-State, while Baylor, like KU, stands 9-5. Iowa State is 8-6, Texas 7-7, TCU 6-8, Oklahoma 5-9, Oklahoma State 3-11 and West Virginia 2-12.
“They were great. We were awful,” Self said. KU’s previous worst loss in a Big 12 game coached by Self was 25 points to Texas in 2006. KU also lost a nonconference game by 25 points to Temple in 2014. The worst loss in the Self era was by 32 points to Kentucky in 2014.
“I think we did show up. I just think we played bad,” Self said. “I think they played great. They were terrific. They’d beat anybody in the country tonight in my opinion. We contributed to them playing well, but it was not because we didn’t show up ready. Don’t go there with that,” he added, appearing a bit perturbed at a reporter’s suggestion the Jayhawks weren’t ready to play.
For Texas Tech, Jarrett Culver scored 26 points, Matt Mooney 13, Davide Moretti 11, Tariq Owens 10 and Norense Odiase eight points with 13 rebounds.
“You’ve got six different guys make at least two threes … that’s pretty impressive,” Self said.
Texas Tech’s Mooney and Moretti and Brandone Francis each went 3 of 4 from three. The Red Raiders, who hit 9 of 15 threes the first half in building a 25-point halftime lead (biggest lead against a KU team since Baylor led 47-22 in an eight-point victory over Roy Williams’ Jayhawks on Feb. 12, 2001) went 16 of 26 from three (KU was 9 of 21).
Texas Tech’s 16 threes marked the third-most ever by a Jayhawk opponent and the most this season. It also tied the Texas Tech record for single-game three-pointers.
“When you are down 25 or 28 with 10 minutes left, you knew the game was over,” Self said. “We tried to get guys rested, tried to play some guys some minutes to maybe gain some confidence moving forward.”
KU trailed by as many as 33 points with 5 1/2 minutes to play.
“Give them credit. They made shots tonight,” Dedric Lawson said after KU’s fifth Big 12 road loss in seven tries. “They made shots tonight. So many times there were two seconds left on the shot clock, it hit the backboard and it goes in. I guess you can say sometimes you lose confidence when you see shots like that go in.
“I can look at myself. I came out lackadaisical,” added Lawson, who scored 14 points and had five rebounds in 26 minutes. “They made shots (60.7 percent to KU’s 45.8 percent) really. That’s what it came down to.”
Tech’s blistering 60.7 percentage was the highest by a Kansas opponent since Long Beach State shot 62.8 percent on Jan. 25, 1993.
The game marked the return for KU of Marcus Garrett, who’d missed the last five contests because of an ankle sprain. He had nine points in 22 minutes.
“I think it responded pretty great,” said Garrett of his ankle. “I felt good at the end of the game.”
Garrett made 4 of 6 shots.
“I think he did fine,” Self said of Garrett, a sophomore guard. “He goes out there and competes. I think he trusted his ankle a little bit. I’m not going to say anybody played well. He did some good things, K.J. (eight points, 20 minutes) did some good things also.”
The Jayhawks now will have just a day to prepare for Kansas State. Tipoff is 8 p.m. Monday at Allen Fieldhouse. KSU beat KU 74-67 on Feb. 5 at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kan.
“It’s a challenge (preparing). It’d be a challenge no matter what,” Self said. “The Big 12 plays us at 7 o’clock, we’ll get home at 2 (a.m.) and be ready to go on Monday. It’d be a lot easier to prepare probably if we played better here, but it’s one game. Whether you lose by one or 30 it’s one game. That will not put a damper on our spirits getting ready to play K-State on Monday.”
This one against Texas Tech was never a game.
The Red Raiders raced to an 18-8 lead and never slowed down in building the margin to 25 points — 45-20 — at halftime. It was the largest halftime deficit for KU in 18 years. Culver scored 11 points on 5-for-11 shooting and had three assists in the half, for the Red Raiders, who hit 17 of 31 shots (54.8 percent) and 9 of 15 threes.
Four Texas Tech players had six points apiece as eight players scored in the half.
KU hit 9 of 23 first-half shots and was 2 of 8 from three. The Jayhawks, who had eight turnovers (13 for the game to Texas Tech’s eight), were led by Devon Dotson’s four first-half points.
Texas Tech raced to a 18-8 lead just 5:11 into the game. Culver hit his first three shots (including a three-pointer) and scored seven points. Davide Moretti and Brandone Francis also hit a three apiece in grabbing the early 10-point lead.
Freshman starter David McCormack, who was starting his fourth straight game, had two of KU’s first three turnovers. KU was 4 of 5 shooting in that span, but still trailed by 10.
Texas Tech built on its early 18-8 lead, leading by margins of 21-10, 24-10, 26-12 and 34-17 with 7:08 left in the half. Texas Tech in gaining the 17-point lead at that point had hit 13 of 21 shots and was 7 of 12 from three. KU was 8 of 15 and 1 of 3 from three with four turnovers.
Tech continued to add to the margin, leading 39-17 at 3:43. At that point, the Red Raiders had cashed 15 of 25 shots (8 of 13 threes). KU had hit 1 of 5 threes at that stage and was 8 of 20 overall.
NOTES: Monday’s game against Kansas State will be the 900th men’s basketball game contested in Allen Fieldhouse over 64 seasons. KU is 786-113 in Allen and 248-13 in the 16-year Bill Self era.
Precious Achiuwa, a 6-9 senior forward from Montverde (Fla.) Academy, will make an official recruiting visit to Kansas from Sunday through Tuesday. He will attend the KU-K-State game as part of his visit. Achiuwa, the No. 16 rated player in the recruiting class of 2019 according to Rivals.com, has a list of KU, North Carolina, UConn, Memphis, Georgia, Western Kentucky, St. John’s, Florida State and UCLA. He’s already taken unofficial visits to Memphis, UConn, Western Kentucky and St. John’s. He will visit North Carolina for the UNC-Duke game on March 9.
This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 9:14 PM.
