Bulldogs Fight Hard But Come Up Short At Texas Tech, 86-74
November 14, 2006 | Men's Basketball
LUBBOCK, Texas - Gardner-Webb suffered first game jitters early, but fought hard from start to finish before ultimately falling, 86-74, to Texas Tech on the road.
Ricky McPhee played Texas Tech All-American Jarius Jackson to a draw, netting a career-high 22 points - preventing the Red Raiders (2-0) from pulling away until the final seconds.
Gardner-Webb (0-1) missed 12 of its first 13 shots in the early going, falling behind 16-2 with 12:35 to play in the first half. After Jake Sims hit a long three and Thomas Sanders converted an old fashioned trifecta, Gardner-Webb trailed 20-8 - when McPhee stepped up to make a game of it.
The Lilburn, Ga., sophomore hit back-to-back threes, quickly cutting the lead to 20-14 with 8:45 remaining in the opening stanza. A three by Takayo Siddle trimmed the lead to just three points, 20-17 on the Bulldogs' next possession - capping a 9-0 burst. Texas Tech went inside to 7-1, 250-pound junior Esmir Rizvic for a layup and Jackson converted a running jumper to get the lead to 26-19. McPhee answered again with a 24-foot trey to cut the lead to 26-22 with 4:47 left - and after four more points from Jackson, Sims hit his second three of the half to cut the Red Raiders' lead to 30-27 with just 2:16 left before halftime.
Another jumper from Jackson, and two more free throws by the Tech star with six seconds left pushed the home squad up by seven, 34-27, at intermission.
Texas Tech finally got its lead back to double figures with 16:34 to play in the game, as Martin Zeno converted a fast break layup for a 44-34 edge. Gardner-Webb would cut the lead as close as six on a Siddle three with 10:46 remaining, but the early-game deficit proved to large to overcome. GWU cut the lead to nine points several times - the last coming with 1:13 left, but the early season deficit was too much to overcome. Still, Texas Tech would not pull away by more than 14 points in the final half.
"We learned a lot about ourselves tonight," said GWU coach Rick Scruggs in the postgame press conference. "With such a young team, we didn't have any idea what to expect. We gave a great effort, fought hard, but we put them on the free throw line too much. That kind of effort will beat a lot of teams on our schedule, but not Texas Tech tonight."
The Bulldogs put four players in double figures on the night, but got little to no production offensively from their inexperienced post trio. Still yet, in addition to McPhee's 22-point outburst, GWU got a career-high 16 points from Siddle, 13 points and 11 boards from Sanders and 13 points from Sims. GWU shot just 36.1 percent from the floor, but hit 11-of-28 from downtown (39.3 percent). The 'Dogs also outrebounded the taller and heavier Red Raiders, pulling down 17 offensive caroms to take a 46-41 edge on the glass.
Jackson made 11-of-12 free throws, but was just 5-of-14 from the field for his 22 points to lead Texas Tech. The big edge for the hosts came at the charity stripe, as Tech hit 27-of-41 chances - compared to 11-of-14 shooting for the visitors.
Rizvic had a career-best 17 points in the middle, Zeno had several of his 19 points in the final five minutes and Charlie Burgess had 13 points and seven rebounds before fouling out trying to guard Gardner-Webb's McPhee.
Gardner-Webb will have another tough test in the consolation round Tuesday night, as the 'Dogs will be forced to play Akron, a team that received top-25 votes in the Associated Press poll this past week. The Zips were upset by Arkansas-Little Rock on Monday night. Akron features a pair of starters, Dru Joyce and Romeo Travis, that were notable high school teammates of NBA star Lebron James. Travis, a 6-foot-7, 235-pound forward, is one of the top players in the Mid American Conference.
| FINAL BOX SCORE: TTU 86, GWU 74 |
