By Jeff Walker | A-J SPORTS EDITOR

The only thing missing from Pat Knight’s post-game news conference was a white beard and Rudolph.

Jolly St. Pat was in a festive mood following Texas Tech’s 67-53 victory over Centenary on Tuesday at United Spirit Arena.

Perhaps his Kris Kringle jingle was due to a defense that had gone awry in recent games. The defense put up impressive first-half numbers, but followed a growing trend this season of failing to play the same in both halves.

The Red Raiders played on offense at times like a team ready for Christmas, but held the Gents to 14 first-half points.

Part of the Gents’ problems were with shooting. They missed 11 of their first 12 shots and shot 33 percent from the field.

Part of the Gents’ shooting problems, though, were because of the Tech defense, which blocked three of Centenary’s first 12 field-goal attempts.

The Red Raiders finished with nine blocked shots – led by five from freshman Robert Lewandowski – and eight steals.

The 14 points was a season-low yield for the Tech defense, which had allowed at least 47 points in three of its last six halves.

While the first-half defense was impressive, the Red Raiders acknowledged a difficult trend this season of failing to play the same in each half.

“It was obvious, after holding them to 14 points in the first half, we were like, Let’s get it done. Let’s do it again in the second half,’” Lewandowski said. “That just didn’t happen. We really let up, and that’s going to be a little weight on our shoulders over this Christmas break. That’s something we’re all going to have to think about, come back and work on.

“We’ve got to get ready for Stanford, because if we do that against Stanford, we’re going to get our butts handed to us.”

The last time the Red Raiders held the opposition to fewer than 40 points in both halves was seven games ago – in their 77-73 win over Mississippi State in the consolation final of the Legends Classic.

The only other time Tech accomplished that feat was in the season opener, an 81-47 win over St. Francis (Pa.) in which the Eagles scored 24 points in the first half and 23 points after the break.

Centenary scored 39 points in the second half after being held to just six field goals in the first half.

Other instances when the opposition scored signifcantly more points in a half against the Tech defense include:

• New Mexico scored 47 points after scoring 31 in the first half.

• Lamar scored 51 in the second half after being held to 34 in the first half.

• Wichita State scored 43 in the second half, 17 more than it scored in the first half.

• Eastern Kentucky scored 58 points after being held to 26 first-half points.

The Red Raiders were able to win three of those four games mostly because the offensive output made up for the defense’s problems.

“We can’t do that in big games. We need to come out for the full 40 minutes and not just for the first 20,” Tech guard Alan Voskuil said.

College basketball

• Who: Texas Tech at Stanford

• When: 9 p.m. Sunday

• Where: Palo Alto, Calif.

• Records: Tech 9-3; Stanford 8-0

• TV: FSN

• Radio: KKAM 1340 AM