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The Texas Tech Red Raiders were bounced from the Big 12 Tournament last night by the West Virginia Mountaineers. This snapped a nine-game winning streak that led the Red Raiders to a share of the regular season conference title. The Red Raiders were shocked early on as the Mountaineers had a double-digit lead the majority of the game.
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If there was a game to go cold, this was it. I believe this team will bounce back in the NCAA Tournament and that they will find someway to advance pretty far in the tournament. The Mountaineers have been on a warpath and are now just two wins away from the NCAA Tournament. If they complete this magical run, it would most likely come at the expense of another Big 12 team, probably Texas.
The Red Raiders came out scoring the first four points but from that point on, the game was controlled by the Mountaineers. The Red Raiders only hit 6 three pointers the entire game and only made 45% of their shots overall. The Red Raiders actually out-shot the Mountaineers in field goal percentage but were dominated on the boards by the bulk of the Mountaineers. Not many teams have as much size as they do, but the Red Raiders will still need to work on not giving up as much offensive rebounds to teams as the Mountaineers got 19 on the night.
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This team was just not itself tonight. They came out and underrated the Mountaineers just a little bit. Jarrett Culver scored 26 points and had 10 rebounds but missed all of his three-point attempts and went 11-24 from the field. Davide Moretti who had been the most efficient player in the NCAA during the team’s nine game winning streak shot 4-9 from the field. The team had a hard time driving to the rim and settled for contested jumpers and ill-advised three pointers the entire game.
Congrats to Jarrett Culver who reached the 1,000 point milestone after scoring 26 points against WVU last night. He is the 42nd player in #TexasTech history to pass the scoring milestone and the first to accomplish it as a freshman-sophomore. #4To1
— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) March 15, 2019
#WreckEm⚫️ pic.twitter.com/mVG4Whe1vC
This team came out and it looked like they were just going through the motions for most of the game. Matt Mooney and Tariq Owens were even subbed out for Malik Ondigo and Avery Benson at one point in the first half. It was good to see them fight at the end of a game that they gave away in the first ten minutes of the game. Let’s all hope this team can bounce back from this shocking upset and make a run in the NCAA Tournament.