TAMPA, Fla. (KCBD) – After two frustrating weeks, the No. 5-seeded Texas Tech Red Raiders (23-10) surged ahead in the second half and beat the 12th-seeded Akron Zips 91-71, snapping a three-game losing streak.
Men’s head basketball coach Grant McCasland says while pre-tournament seeding may become a hot discussion topic this time of year but is still something he makes sure his team pays no attention to.
“If you put the (seeding) number by somebody’s name and you try to determine how hard you’re going to play by a number, then you’re dumb. To me, let’s look at what they do well and let’s try to take it away and let’s talk about what we do well that they can’t handle and let’s really focus on that,” he said. “So, ours was really focused on game plan effort and how do we execute on every possession and let y’all talk about all these seeds and numbers because we saw their jersey and it was blue and ours was white and we wanted the white team to win and that’s the way we approached it.”
With JT Toppin out for the rest of the season, the team has been looking for ways to readjust on both sides. On Friday, five Red Raiders scored double figures. Jaylen Petty led with 24 points, which includes a run late in the game where he scored 11 points in less than three minutes. While point guard Christian Anderson had 18 points, Josiah Moseley came off the bench to land 16. Shooting guard Donovan Atwell had 15 points and was 4-for-6 in three-point shots. LeJuan Watts scored 14 before he fouled out with 9:42 left to play.
“It was a matter of not losing our intensity and our competitiveness because, I love this team and we all want each other to be better. So, every day in practice and whatever we talk about is what’s the next steps to get better and how can we still compete,” Petty said.
The Red Raiders also outrebounded the Zips 32-25, including 25 on defense. Akron’s point guard Tavari Johnson came entered Friday’s contest averaging 20.1 points per game and was limited to only four. Many experts from around the country were anticipating his point guard showdown with Anderson.
“You got to start with Johnson for Akron,” McCasland said. “I thought he was arguably the best player in the MAC, and the way he scored, the way he was their motor. We really tried to key on him to make it as difficult as possible.”
Texas Tech will move on to the round of 32 and play fourth-seeded Alabama Sunday back at the Benchmark International Arena, tip-off set for 8:45 p.m. CT. The game will be on TBS, and on the Texas Tech Radio Network.
On Friday, the Crimson Tide came back to defeat Hofstra 90-70.
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