Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Athletics
SMU
Red Raiders Handle Mustangs
November 26, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2002
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- Texas Tech's lack of focus at times Tuesday night let SMU keep the game closer than the final 77-59 score indicated.
The Red Raiders led by 19 twice but allowed the Mustangs to narrow the gap to as little as seven in the second half.
"I think there's a laxity in concentration that enables that to happen," Tech coach Bob Knight said. "We had two or three times where we let them come back."
Robert Tomaszek scored 19 points and Andre Emmett added 16 to lead the Red Raiders.
After leading by 13 at halftime, Tech (2-0) extended its lead in a 8-2 run brought about by two assists by Nick Valdez and one by Will Chavis, for a 47-28 lead.
SMU (1-1) fought back to within seven points to trail 51-44 after an 16-4 run midway through the second half. The Mustangs could get no closer.
When the Mustangs were behind by nine, SMU's Justin Isham missed an easy dunk off an alley-oop pass that appeared to dampen any momentum the Mustangs had going. It was long enough for Tech to stiffen and the Red Raiders went on to regain a 19-point lead with less than two minutes remaining.
"I thought the key play was coming out of a timeout, Isham missed what appeared to be an easy dunk that would have given us momentum and got us within seven or nine," SMU coach Mike Dement said. "Then they went and rolled it back out to 10 or 12 points."
Turnovers hurt both teams as Tech and SMU got sloppy with passes and faced one another's hawking defense in the first half. The Mustangs ended with 18; Tech had 19.
"We turned the ball over way too many times, and that's what coach Knight really harped on about this game," Tech guard Mikey Marshall said.
The Mustangs shot as poorly as 37 percent early in the first half on 7-of-19, including an almost four-minute stretch where they couldn't hit a basket. They finished the game shooting 37 percent on 20-of-53 while Tech shot 46 percent on 29-of-63.
Quinton Ross scored 28 points and Brian Miller added 12 to lead the Mustangs.
Knight said he still is waiting to see his team play consistently well for 20 minutes.
"This is not a game of 100-yard kickoff returns," Knight said. "There's just play after play after play. This is not a big play game."
In the final 4:10 of the first half, Tomaszek scored eight points -- his total for the half -- of the last 10 Tech tallied to give the Red Raiders a 39-26 lead at halftime.
He played 33 minutes against SMU after only 11 minutes and four points in Tech's season opening 85-76 win over N.C.-Wilmington on Friday night.
"In our last game, I was not really concentrating and I made a couple of mistakes," Tomaszek said. "Coach Knight took me out, and he had good reason to do so. This game, for whatever reason, I was concentrating on everything I had to do."
Knight said he will adjust his lineup when he sees mistakes are creeping in.
"We're going to be a team where when we make mistakes, we're going to make changes" in the lineup, Knight said.
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