Red Raiders get back on track against Cardinal

By Courtney Linehan on December 22nd, 2009 View Comments Printer-Friendly

Mike Singletary wanted to forget about his seven first-half turnovers, below-average 13 points and first loss of the season when Tech traveled to Wichita State last weekend.

His 28 points against Stanford should clear that memory right out.
Despite getting into early foul trouble, Singletary scored a career high on 9-of-12 shooting to help the No. 23 Red Raiders beat the Cardinal 100-87 on Tuesday and improve to 10-1 on the season.

Texas Tech's John Roberson drives against Stanford's Jarrett Mann during their game Tuesday at United Spirit Arena in Lubbock. (Zach Long/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Texas Tech's Mike Singletary shoots against Stanford's Andrew Zimmermann during their game Tuesday at United Spirit Arena in Lubbock. (Zach Long/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

“It was good to come back here, take care of business and get the win,” Singletary said, “even though it was kind of ugly.”

Four other Red Raiders joined Singletary in double-digit scoring, including John Roberson, whose 13 points gave him exactly 1000 for his college career. David Tairu tied his season- and career-high 19 points, while Brad Reese added 13 and Darko Cohadarevic finished with 10.

Landry Fields led Stanford (5-6) with 27 points, but 11 of those came from the free-throw line. He was 8-of-20 from the field. Jeremy Green added 24 points and eight rebounds.

“They’ve got two guys who can really play in Fields and Green,” Singletary said. “It’s good to get back at them, especially after they embarrassed us at their place last year.”

Tech took a 13-6 lead when Cohadarevic made a layup with 12:50 left in the first half. Stanford went on a 12-5 run to tie the game on a Fields dunk, but Okorie found Singletary who posted up to take back the lead at 20-18 with 7:23 to go.

Stanford got its biggest lead of the first half when Green sunk a 3-pointer to make it 29-24 with 4:40 on the clock. Green had 12 first-half points on 5-of-11 field-goal shooting, but Fields led the Cardinal with 15 thanks to a 90 percent success rate during his 10 trips to the free-throw line.

“I told them to relax,” Tech head coach Pat Knight said. “You got all the nerves out of it, let’s just play.”

Cohadarevic had eight points and six rebounds in the first half to lead Tech. Okorie scored seven points on two 3-pointers and a free throw before leaving the game with an injury to his shooting shoulder.
After making a layup to end the first half, Reese opened the second with a 3-pointer.

“They weren’t happy at halftime, they know we weren’t playing well, but I told them you have to feed off that last play,” Knight said. “I didn’t think we played with good energy, we played lethargic the first half, with no emotion. We didn’t play athletic. They got it going the last play when Brad made the block, and they really fed off that. It got us going the second half.”

Singletary and D’walyn Roberts made free throws to give Tech a 10-point lead, which the Raiders stretched to 18 when Singletary made a layup with 3:48 remaining.

Stanford used a 13-6 run to make it an 11-point game with 1:31 on the clock, and even cut it to eight on a pair of Fields free throws and a 3-pointer from Gabriel Harris. Roberson and Singletary closed the game 5-of-6 from the free-throw line to secure Tech’s win.

“We let our guard down a little bit,” Roberson said. “Pat got on us a little bit at the end. It’s something we need to clean up. We thought the game was over, but they kept fighting.”

  • John

    Nice win, Raiders! Keep it rolling…

    Wreck ‘em Tech

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  • TTU ’06

    Hope the kids have a nice break for Christmas and then come back strong for the New Mexico game next week.

    With Florida and Butler both losing this week…and either A&M or Washington losing tonight…and Ole Miss will probably lose at West Virginia tomorrow…Texas Tech should move up 3 or 4 spots in the AP Poll next week, and I’m sure they’ll be back in the Coaches Poll.

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  • 86raider88

    Quote from Roberson: “We let our guard down a little bit,” Roberson said. “Pat got on us a little bit at the end.

    A player calling the coach by his first name. Not a good sign. Hope this is an isolated slip.

    Good win for Tech; however, defense still lacking.

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  • raider09

    86raider88- All the players refer to Coach Knight as “Pat”, he told them to do that because he is not their previous Coach Knight. The General still gets that respect from Pat and the players. I’d say in any other case this would not be a positive thing, however it has shown that by simply doing that Pat is truely connecting with these players. Believe me, you ask any number of the guys and they’ll tell you who runs the show. Great game guys! Lets look for the upset against UNM.

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  • K

    Tech parki g officials, listen up. I missed 1/4 of the game because of the horindous parking. Luckily I got to see a very good bball team tonight. They are so much more athletic in years past and can score. I mean, if you can miss 20+ free throws and still win then you are pretty good. Wreck em’

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  • 86raider88

    raider09 – I’ll take your word for it, but for an old school guy like myself, it’s a respect thing. Wish they would call him Coach “Pat”. Anyway, good win and still looking for that tenacious defense that makes for championship teams.

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  • http://redraider.com garyount

    great win tonight

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  • Jackson

    Great win tonight and great crowd. Congrats Red Raiders.

    I wonder what would have happened if:

    1. Somebody would have guarded Landry Fields #2?

    2. If we didn’t miss 15 free throws.

    3. If we had played 40 minutes with great intensity instead of just 20 minutes?

    4. If we had not missed about five layups in the first five minutes of the game?

    Stanford would have been in shock if we had done the above.

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  • gunssideways

    How did Singletary have a career high w/ 28 points?

    Didn’t he blow for 40′ish against TAMU in the B12 tourney. Scored 20+ in a row for TTU at one point in that game.

    Maybe 28 is his “regular season” high and/or his “non-conf” high.

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  • gunssideways

    for “K”

    h-o-r-i-n-d-o-u-s?

    Dude!

    h-o-r-r-e-n-d-o-u-s.

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  • Elmer L. Wlson

    Good victory! Get prepared and BE PREPARED for UNM! If anybody thought WSU was loud and tough, it’ll be that rough and then some here at the “Pit” with the Lobos! It’s a sellout at the “Pit” too. Any hoot, be ready in every sense of the word for UNM! It’ll take all the talent and composure you guys can muster to get the “W” here in Albuquerque! GO TECH! nmredraider1

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  • http://redraiders.com Darnce

    Trip to ABQ is not a good thing. Those people really started HATING Tech when Leach won their homecoming game 49-0. Tech must play that game like it’s the 7th game of the World Series or they’ll get drowned. Go Pat!

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  • Ben

    K…..get there earlier. I thought the parking was fine considering there were 13K plus attending the game.

    86 Raider 88…..are you kidding me. You are really worried about a player calling his coach by his 1st name? That might be the most stupid sports observation I have ever heard.

    I think Roberson calling Pat by his first name merely means……….that he knows his coach’s first name. Seriously……

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  • EPRedRaider

    Coming back and winning after the loss at Wichita State shows a lot of maturity and resilience. Any good team does what these guys did. They just need to continue to toughen their defense and they can go far this year. If they can get the win at The Pit, it will show that this team is for real. At this point in the season, it will show how good they really are (or how much work they need to do to prepare for the Big 12).

    Keep in goin’ Red Raiders! You can and will compete with everyone in this league! You are a very good team!

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  • Aj

    Any word on Okorie’s injury? I was hoping he just bruised the shoulder, but I saw him late in the game on the bench with a sling.

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  • Jones

    Tip on parking.

    Get there at 6 p.m.

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  • straight shooter

    Note to Tech Officials: Post-game exit from parking lot was terrible. Half concession stands closed. Half number of cops needed for traffic afterwards. Don’t complain about pitiful crowds and then staff games like you’re West Texas State when fans do show up! Very frustrating!!

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  • http://redraider.com garyount

    Hope Okorie is or will be ok, looks like we may have good mens and womens basketball teams this year and the parking definately needs to be addressed..

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