LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Without key player Christian Anderson, No. 13 Texas Tech (16-6, 6-3) suffered a loss at home to No. 11 Kansas, 64-61, on ESPN’s Big Monday.
Anderson was ruled out shortly before the game, leaving the Red Raiders to readjust on short notice.
“Well, we just didn’t even have a plan. We didn’t know it, so we didn’t have a plan for 40 minutes. We’re just sitting in there about 15 minutes before the game trying to figure out exactly how we wanted to formulate 40 minutes of it,” said Tech’s head basketball coach Grant McCasland. “I mean, we’ve got great ideas. I thought Jazz Henderson came in and gave us great minutes. I thought Jaylen Petty was unbelievable. His competitiveness all the way through. LeJuan (Watts) had great stretches, and Donovan (Atwell) was as great as he always is defensively and solid”
Watts scored a team-high 19 points and a team-leading 12 rebounds for the double-double.
He was one of four Red Raiders to score in double-figures on the night. Atwell chipped in 12 while Petty scored 11. Standout JT Toppin was held to 10 points and hauled in six rebounds.
With 8:17 left to play, the Red Raiders led Rock Chalk 57-47, which would end up being their biggest margin of the night. Kansas ended the game on a 14-2 run. Jayhawk Darryn Peterson made two clutch three-pointers for Kansas to tie and then take the lead over the Red Raiders with just 44 seconds left.
The Red Raiders got the turnover and called a timeout. On the next possession, Kansas committed a foul, which led to two missed threes by Texas Tech, giving the Jayhawks the win.
In spite of the frustrations the team has seen in the previous three days, which includes Saturday’s 88-80 defeat at UCF, Coach McCasland believes Tech can build off of Monday night’s loss.
“The fight that we showed, considering the circumstance, I just love our guys, but it doesn’t count for anything other than a loss, and we don’t get time to think about anything other than we got to go beat West Virginia on Sunday,” McCasland said. “And man, staying in the Big 12 is about being resilient and getting ready to get better, and we’ll get better because of this.”
Next up, Texas Tech is on the road against West Virginia for a 12 p.m. CT start time on Sunday in Morgantown.
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