Tech’s Kevin Obanor gets their first points with a reverse dunk as they play Baylor, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, at the United Supermarkets Arena. (Zachary Sorrels) 
Tech’s Jaylon Tyson lays it in as they play Baylor, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, at the United Supermarkets Arena. (Zachary Sorrels) 
Tech’s Pop Isaacs takes a corner three-pointer with Baylor’s Langston Love (13) guarding him. Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, at the United Supermarkets Arena. (Zachary Sorrels) 
Tech’s Fardaws Aimaq goes for a layup as they play Baylor, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, at the United Supermarkets Arena. (Zachary Sorrels) 
Tech’s Daniel Batcho goes up for a dunk with Baylor’s Caleb Lohner behind him. Call was goaltending. Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, at the United Supermarkets Arena. (Zachary Sorrels) 
Tech’s Kevin Obanor goes down with the ball as Baylor’s Flo Thamba (0) and Caleb Lohner (right) are near him. Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, at the United Supermarkets Arena. (Zachary Sorrels) 
Texas Tech’s Lamar Washington passes the ball to Jaylon Tyson (left) as they play Baylor, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, at the United Supermarkets Arena. (Zachary Sorrels) 
Texas Tech’s Kevin Obanor drives as they play Baylor, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, at the United Supermarkets Arena. (Zachary Sorrels) 
Jaylon Tyson waits in the corner on offense as Texas Tech plays Baylor, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, at the United Supermarkets Arena. (Zachary Sorrels) 
Tyler Shough waves the “Guns Up” symbol as the Texas Tech football team, who won the 2022 Texas Bowl, is welcomed onto the court at Tech’s men’s basketball game versus Baylor. (Zachary Sorrels)
For all of this team’s flaws, like not being able to play well at the same time and averaging 14.8 turnovers per game, this Texas Tech men’s basketball team was showing potential.
That’s what made the 0-5 start in Big 12 play, including two close home losses, so frustrating for the Tech fanbase. In the last game, however, the Big Maple came back and made an impact despite the two-point loss.
Fardaws Aimaq got his first start for Tech, and the Red Raiders had just nine turnovers. Unfortunately for them, however, the Red Raiders’ potential didn’t turn into a Big 12 win, and the fanbase still has not gotten to see the fruits of the team’s labor. Tech fell to Baylor 81-74 Tuesday.
Texas Tech (10-8) is now 0-6 in the Big 12. Baylor (13-5) started the Big 12 0-3 but has recovered with three straight wins to get to 3-3.
Baylor’s Keyonte George scored 27 points to lead all scorers, while LJ Cryer added 18 points of his own for Baylor.
Jaylon Tyson had a season-high 19 points and added 12 rebounds to get his third straight double-double. He also added two steals and shot 7-for-13 from the field.
Despite his performance, he wasn’t pleased with how he played, especially defensively.
“I got to do more defensively,” Tyson said, “‘cause offense is going to come…I got to get more boards, more offensive rebounds. I got to crash harder. I got to play harder. I got to guard the ball better. I got to do everything better.”
It was electric early as in Aimaq’s first start, he got an offensive rebound that eventually turned into a Kevin Obanor reverse dunk, then Pop Isaacs got it to a cutting Tyson to give the Red Raiders a 4-2 lead and force a Baylor timeout.
That was the only lead Texas Tech had the entire game, even as Tech’s next points were on an Aimaq three-pointer.
Cryer and Jalen Bridges led the way in the first half for Baylor as they combined to shoot 11-for-13, with Cryer going 4-for-4 from deep, and each of them had 14 points.
Tyson led the way for Tech in the first half as Aimaq, Obanor and Isaacs complemented him well, each playing a solid first half.
Although Tech outshot Baylor 57.7% to 51.4% and shot exactly the same from the three-point line in the first half, Baylor’s second chance points advantage (10-4) and points in the paint (16-8) were the biggest difference as they had a 48-40 halftime lead.
The second half started as the Keyonte George show.
He had nine points in the first half, but it was nothing compared to how he scored Baylor’s first 13 points of the half in under four minutes.
Despite George’s fantastic performance, Tech hung in to keep the game closer until a 9-0 run from Baylor, including two Tech turnovers, gave Baylor a 70-54 lead with 10:50 to go, and it felt like the Tech offense couldn’t score…until they did.
A Tech 20-9 run late in the half started too late and wasn’t enough as Isaacs cut the deficit to six with a three-pointer with 2:59 to go, and he cut it to five points with 55 seconds to go with a free throw.
He missed his second, and even though Tech got the offensive rebound, Isaacs missed a three-pointer to effectively end it for Tech.
Baylor head coach Scott Drew credited his team with never letting it get to a one-possession game late, especially as Tech made some great shots.
Up Next
After answering questions, Tyson and Walton hugged Adams, saying not to give up on him.
Tech head coach Mark Adams said he hurts for this team as they work hard and have come a long way on being coachable. He said the players are good both on and off the court. He also talked about their morale after the loss.
“When you go through these losses, it wears on you, and what’s important is that our guys keep their head up and stay positive, no different than you would in life,” Adams said. “There’s certain times you have a bad day, a bad week, a bad month or more, and you learn from adversity, and we just challenge these guys not to give up on themselves or each other, and let’s keep fighting.”
He said Aimaq has been at about one and a half practices since coming back, and Batcho hasn’t had much practice either lately. The team will get healthier.
They hope to figure it out soon and not start 0-7 in the Big 12 for the first time since the 2011-12 season when they go on the road to No. 13 Kansas State. The game starts at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Loading ...