LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech finished the first half on a 10-1 run and later used a 23-6 spurt after halftime to defeat the University of South Alabama men's basketball team 75-50 Friday night at United Supermarkets Arena.
The game was the season opener for both teams.
Sophomore
Jordan Andrews led the Jaguars with 15 points – 13 in the first half – and sophomore
Herb McGee had a career-best 11, going 3 for 3 from 3-point land.
Zhaire Smith led a group of four Red Raiders in double-digit points with 14 off the bench.
Keenan Evans and
Tommy Hamilton IV had 12 points each
GAME FACTS
- The largest lead for either team in the first 18 minutes was five, and for a stretch of almost 10 minutes, the two teams were separated by no more than three points
- Texas Tech used its press to key the 10-1 first-half ending run – Smith nailed a triple to retake the lead, then converted a turnover into a layup; due to an intentional foul on the play, the Red Raiders hit another layup after keeping possession
- The Jaguars turned the ball over with 1:29 left, which led to another layup, this time by
Niem Stevenson for a 36-27 advantage
- USA trailed by just six in the early going after halftime, but a jumper from Hamilton with 14:24 left started a run of 10 unanswered points for TTU's largest lead of the game, 54-37
- A triple from McGee temporarily stopped the bleeding, but Texas Tech reeled off 13 of the next 16 points to put the game out of reach
NOTES
- Texas Tech outscored South Alabama 38-14 in the paint, 27-7 off turnovers, and 40-16 on bench points
- Andrews was playing in his first game since the 2015-16 season when he was at Youngstown State; he sat out last year after transferring to South Alabama
- South Alabama's 24 turnovers are its most since committing 26 in a win over Louisiana on Jan. 16, 2014
- Junior
Rodrick Sikes was credited with a team-high three steals, and senior
Nick Davis had a pair
- Senior
Dederick Lee played just eight minutes but went 2 for 2 on 3-pointers and had a steal
- South Alabama shot 30.4 percent from the floor and 50.0 percent from the free-throw line
- Andrews went 7 for 7 from the free-throw line; the rest of the team went 8 for 23 (34.8%)
- Texas Tech won the battle of the boards 40-32
- Sophomore
Trhae Mitchell grabbed a team-high six rebounds, tying his most against a Division I opponent
- Mitchell went 1 for 5 from the floor, his worst shooting performance since going 0 for 3 against Youngstown State in his fourth career game; Mitchell shot 50 percent or better 12 times in his last 14 games of the 2016-17 campaign
THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Matthew Graves
Opening statement: "First off, I'd like to congratulate Coach Beard. I thought, like his teams that I had a chance to play against when he was at Little Rock, they do play extremely hard. They cause you to run a very poor offense. Evidently he's really upped his free-throw defense game because we couldn't make a free throw tonight. We're going to continue to work on that. I saw a lot of positives from our young team, but we just have to get better. I think as the season goes on we'll be a lot better team."
On South Alabama's performance: "I expected us to compete, and I thought we did for about 28 minutes. We did a good job of staying in the game and staying fairly poised. We had a couple of self-inflicted turnovers late in the first half that really cost us. One was a sophomore point guard and then a freshman point guard on back-to-back plays. Those were very good teachable moments for us right now. Early in the season, we need to find those moments. When we moved the basketball in the first half and were able to drive and get to the free throw line, we showed a lot of really good poise doing that. It's certainly something we can build on. We've got to put it together for 40 minutes though."
On playing with a young team: "I think that one of the biggest factors was experience. We've got a lot of guys that haven't played a lot of minutes. A couple of guys that have been redshirted have now been thrust into playing time. I think you have a combination of experience with a little bit of talent – the obvious length and athleticism that we're not quite used to. I think if you combine all those you probably get a 25-point game. Obviously any chance we could have had of making it a real game was that we needed to make free throws. We put ourselves at the line 30 times. You make 23 or 24, there's seven or eight points right there. I think Texas Tech did a tremendous job of scoring off our turnovers. Those two areas will get you beat every night on the road."
UP NEXT
The Jaguars will open their home schedule Monday against Mobile at 7:05 p.m.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
Join the Jaguar Athletic Fund (JAF) Priority Fund, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics. Contributions to the Priority Fund directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/give
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