Skeletons dance across the backs of the Texas Tech men’s basketball players. The frightful figures are printed on their T-shirts, but they carry a message coach Pat Knight hopes rattles his team this season: Play to the bone.

Northwestern State's Cory Dixon, left, and Texas Tech's Nick Okorie hit the floor for a loose ball during Tech's 94-75 win Thursday night at United Spirit Arena. (John A Bowersmith)

“It’s a fighting term: it means you have to fight to the end, until that final bell goes off,” Knight said after the Raiders’ 94-75 win against Northwestern State on Thursday. “Look at boxing, how many guys lose it in the 12th round, get knocked out because they’re playing it safe or just think they have the fight won.”

Knight has always known his team can score. In its first four games, he’s seen indications the defense is stronger than ever. But the Raiders are still learning to shut down opponents with tenacious defense while leaving enough energy to feed their high-flying offense.

Tech’s best defensive effort this season, from a statistical perspective, came in the opener against South Dakota. The Coyotes scored just 49 points on 31.5 percent shooting. Tech forced 30 turnovers, while also almost doubling South Dakota’s final score.

Those are the kind of numbers Knight wants to see from his team once Big 12 Conference competition begins. In its second game last weekend Tech held Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to just 59 points and less than 40 percent shooting from the floor. But in only scoring 66 points, the Raiders’ offense did not reach levels that will work in the heart of the schedule.

Instead, Knight wants to see his players focus on defense and run the basic offense, rather than worry about out-gunning the opponent. He said Tech did too much of that in the first half of Thursday’s game against Northwestern State.

“It was going back to the same old BS as last year: not guarding people, trying to out-gun the other team. You might be able to do that against some teams in the preseason, but you’re not going to be able to out-gun Texas and Kansas.”

The message is coming through. Forward D’walyn Roberts can list all the areas Tech’s defense still needs to improve: talking, rebounding, boxing out, pressuring the ball, switching on screens.

When those things happen, Roberts said, the points follow. But without them Tech falls apart on both ends of the court.

“We score a lot of points off our defense,” Roberts said. “The more steals we get, the more fast-break points we can get. Then once we get in our offense we can score off that, too.”

Lamar can expect Tech to be gunning from the opening tip. After losing in Beaumont last season and being chewed out by their head coach after Thursday’s sloppy start, forward Mike Singletary said the Raiders hope to put this one away early.

“Every time we get it going, get steals, turnovers, get running, we’re as good as anybody,” Singletary said. “That’s the main focus for us, and that all starts with playing defense.”

College basketball

• Who: Texas Tech vs. Lamar

• When: 7 p.m. today

• Where: United Spirit Arena

• Records: Tech 4-0, Lamar 2-1.

• Last game: Texas Tech 94, Northwestern State 75. Middle Tennessee 74, Lamar 66.

• Last meeting: Lamar 85, Tech 78 last year in Beaumont

• Radio: KTTU 104.3 FM.

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