'Scrap it': Texas Tech basketball not pitying themselves after end of Big 12 Tournament run

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With 15 minutes on the pregame clock, the 25th-ranked Texas Tech basketball team was in the locker room watching the usually stoic Darrion Williams overcome with emotion.

"He was in full tears," Tech coach Grant McCasland said of Williams, "... because he just was devastated that he wasn't able to play."

The 6-foot-6 wing tried as hard as he could to be on the T-Mobile Center floor for the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament. Williams went through most of the pregame warmup, though as his own pace, testing out his injured left ankle without pushing it too far.

At one point, he sat on the bench next to Tech's other two injured starters from opening day, Devan Cambridge and Warren Washington. Knees on his elbows, head in his palms, Williams winced as he gave it the old college try. Just lace up the shoe a bit tighter, and it'll be OK.

Eventually, Williams had to concede defeat. He wasn't going to be able to help his team on the floor against the top-ranked team in the country. Beating Houston would've been a difficult challenge anyway. Finding out minutes before tipoff one of your most critical pieces wouldn't be out there made the task even more insurmountable.

That the Cougars ran away with an 82-59 win in the second half isn't the main talking point for Red Raider fans. It was the three bodies in street clothes, around whom McCasland built his team last offseason, doing their best to keep spirits high even as Houston asserted its will.

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"It's tough," Kerwin Walton said, "but at the end of the day we've got to find a way to handle business with or without them. Regardless of whether they're hurt or not, they're still gonna be there cheering us on. We gotta make sure we do what we're supposed to do. ..."

Houston (30-3) took Texas Tech's best shot and withstood the blow. A 16-point Red Raider deficit in the first half became a 37-37 game just a few minutes into the second. Texas Tech (23-10) had life, momentum and energy. Then it was gone.

"... We've got the right guys," McCasland said. "We've just got to add a couple more who are healthy so we can finish this game."

In the first meeting against Houston in January, the Cougars pounded the paint and dominated the glass, two areas Houston tried to exploit again on Friday. Even without their best interior presences Williams (ankle) and Washington (foot) not on the floor, the Red Raiders improved in both marks, winning the rebounding battle 31-30 and holding the Cougars to 24 points in the paint after Houston had 40 in the 77-54 win on its home floor.

In Tech's first 15 games of Big 12 play, it won the rebounding battle just three times. Friday was the fifth consecutive games the Red Raiders finished ahead in that category, a small consolation for a team missing its top two rebounders.

"Two areas that we wanted to be great in," McCasland said, "one of them is how do you rebound against this team because it's one of the elite rebounding teams, and we know that's been a source of a lot of our losses and games that we didn't play great is because of rebounding. ... We ended up out-rebounding them in the game, which I think says a lot about these guys' competitiveness, and that's one area that we'll take as a positive going forward. If we can do that in the NCAA Tournament, we'll have a chance to advance."

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Losing to Houston isn't the end of Texas Tech's season, though the mood in the locker room was far from jovial. The Red Raiders were displeased with their effort, their 19 turnovers, their 33% shooting from the field. Not having certain players on the floor isn't the excuse those who did play are willing to use.

They will, however, admit that taking a lump from a team like Houston this close to the NCAA Tournament could be beneficial. Making the comeback was a positive. So was the victory on the glass. They're not the wins the Red Raiders sought, but they'll take them.

"We knew what it was from the jump," Joe Toussaint said. "All credit to that team for playing hard, now we just scrap it, get ready for the next game."

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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech basketball not pitying themselves after end of Big 12 Tournament run