BY JEFF WALKER

A-J SPORTS EDITOR

Texas Tech’s secret won’t be kept for long.

The secret, known mostly at South Plains College and throughout the junior-college circuit, is named Nick Okorie.

Playing in just his second basketball game with the Red Raiders, Okorie helped key a second-half run that broke open the game as Tech knocked off Sam Houston State, 87-76, on Monday in front of an announced crowd of 9,597 at United Spirit Arena.

Tech (2-0) led 40-30 at halftime before the Bearkats trimmed the deficit to 44-39 less than three minutes into the second half.

Okorie tipped an offensive rebound to D’Walyn Roberts that led to an easy layup, later added a steal that led to a free throw and scored five consecutive points to build the lead back up to 54-43.

“I don’t remember Tech having a two-guard as physical as Nick Okorie,” Sam Houston State head coach Bob Marlin said. “He probably got a nosebleed one time there in the second half he was up there so good for an offensive rebound. He’s certainly a very good athlete.”

Okorie, who helped lead South Plains to the junior college national championship last season, scored 18 points — two more than he had in Tech’s 81-47 win over St. Francis (Pa.) in Saturday’s season opener.

Tech head coach Pat Knight doesn’t think he’ll be able to keep the Red Raiders’ secret much longer.

“It will start happening, tapes will get out,” Knight said. “… It takes about a week or two weeks — now you’ve got two or three tapes on somebody — and then you can start to key on some guys when they have two or three games under their belts and you see who their go-to guys are.

“I think with the depth that we have, if they key on somebody, I’ve got somebody else that can score if they key on someone.”

One of the keys last year was Alan Voskuil, but the senior guard struggled from the field for the second game in a row.

Voskuil, who shot 2 of 6 from 3-point range in the opener, shot 3 of 10 from beyond the arc against the Bearkats. He was 3 of 14 from the field, but managed to make another contribution — setting a career high with 12 rebounds.

John Roberson also established a new career high with eight assists, while Roberts — who finished with 10 points — was one point shy of tying his career best.

Four players scored in double figures for Tech, led by Okorie and Mike Singletary, who came off the bench to pour in 18 in just 20 minutes before fouling out.

Singletary scored eight points in nine minutes in the first half, but foul trouble plagued him in the second half. All five of his fouls came after the break.

His performance was the antithesis of his play in the opener, when he scored six points in 13 minutes.

“He showed up,” Knight said. “It’s pretty simple. He showed up and played, so that was good to see.

“I give him credit. He didn’t play well the last game, but he’s not a pouter. He didn’t moan or complain. He was happy we won the last game. He’s one of our leaders, so I liked that.”

Singletary’s play up front was important because Tech was without forward Trevor Cook for most of the game. Knight said Cook, who scored 10 points in the opener, was ill most of the day and too fatigued to play. Freshman Corbin Ray started and played the first four minutes.

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