Knight Gets Best of Tubbs as Texas Tech Wins, 99-86

Bob Knight’s players showed their coach and fans everywhere how proficiently they’ve adopted his style.

“We can’t play any better than we did in the beginning of the game,” Knight said after Texas Tech (6-1) defeated Texas Christian, 99-86, Saturday.

“I have not had a team play better than that, particularly in a game that was a featured game that was on national television,” he said. “These kids came out and really played really well.”

It was the first time Knight and the Horned Frogs’ Billy Tubbs had coached against each other. Their 1983 teams played in the NCAA tournament when Tubbs was at Oklahoma and Knight was at Indiana, but Tubbs was injured by a car while jogging and did not coach that game.

“We never got anything going,” Tubbs said. “We got too far behind to catch up. The game was decided in the first 10 minutes. After that, we’d spurt and then they’d spurt back.”

Texas Tech led by 27 points in the first half before TCU (4-3) went on a 10-0 run. The Horned Frogs pulled within eight points with 5:32 remaining, but Texas Tech scored seven unanswered points to quell the threat.

“I don’t think we’re good enough to spot any team any points, much less 27 points,” Tubbs said.

Kasib Powell scored 13 points in the first four minutes during a 19-6 run by Texas Tech.

Powell finished with 29 points and Andy Ellis added 22 for the Red Raiders, who used a swarming man-to-man defense to keep the Horned Frogs’ run-and-gun offense off balance. In one four-minute stretch, TCU turned the ball over five times and missed five of six shots.

Corey Santee led TCU with 22 points. Bingo Merriex added 21.

It was the first time this season that Texas Tech has surpassed 90 points.

The Red Raiders blew a double-digit halftime lead in a loss to Sam Houston State a week ago, but in the last three games, Texas Tech seems to have gotten a handle on how to keep a lead. It did against Texas El Paso, New Mexico State and TCU.

“We’ve come a long way from when we first got here,” Powell said. “Our chemistry is good. It’s not where you have to depend on one person. We play as one.”

But Knight said the team has work to do. Tech has almost two weeks off before playing at Houston on Dec. 14.

“I’m glad we have a practice period,” Knight said. “We can work on getting smarter and better.”

It was only the second time TCU has been held to fewer than 90 points.