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Jeff Borzello
New York – after nolan groves played in just 20 seconds texas techAfter Tuesday’s win over Northern Colorado, Red Raiders coach Grant McCasland took his rarely used freshman aside in the parking lot and told him to prepare for Saturday’s undefeated contest. ruler At Madison Square Garden.
You’re going to play, McCasland told Groves. So get ready.
The Tech coach’s warning was prophetic, as Groves came off the bench in the second half and scored 17 points as the Red Raiders defeated Duke. 82-81 For the Blue Devils’ first loss of the season.
McCasland said, “It’s great when you get a guy like Nolan Groves, who shoots an airball and goes 0-2 and plays 13 minutes and only has one offensive rebound and three fouls, but he’s plus-13.” “And it shows you what an impact you can make on the game of college basketball, no matter what.”
Texas Tech (9-3) was already down three players due to injury, then added two more — Lejuan Watts And leon horner — was thrown out foul. star big man JT Toppin Picked up his fourth foul with 18:26 remaining. McCasland essentially had zero proven options on his bench to deal with the Player of the Year favorite cameron boozer,
So, McCasland turned to the 6-foot-5 Groves, who had not played more than a minute in a game since late November and had not played double-digit minutes since the second game of the season.
In his first notable action of the game, Groves air-balled a 3-point attempt. He didn’t make a single shot during his 13 minutes on the floor, but he took the lead by defending Boozer and keeping the star from scoring for the rest of the game.
“He shows up every day,” McCasland said. “And one of the things he’s done is he’s been guarded every day. We put him on the scout team so he could play defense, and he just kept stepping up. And one of the things I felt he could do is move his feet and defend physically. Honestly, it was a perfect matchup for us because it helped JT stay out of foul trouble. He could patrol the rim and still rebound. “And Nolan could set him up, which a lot of guys can’t do in college basketball. Set up Boozer and Nolan did a great job.”
Texas Tech scored the first nine points of the game, but Duke eventually settled down and began controlling the game on both ends. The Blue Devils were getting timely 3-pointers from their complementary players, while Boozer was constantly getting Tech’s front line into foul trouble. Duke entered halftime with a 10-point lead, while Boozer was on a triple-double watch with 10 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
Toppin, who finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds, picked up his fourth foul early in the second half as Duke increased the lead to 17 points with 16:31 remaining. The Red Raiders scored a few runs, including one to narrow the lead to two, but the Blue Devils quickly responded to take the lead to 11 with just under six minutes remaining.
Short-handed, Tech responded again. More specifically, Christian Anderson Answered again.
Anderson, a second-year point guard who was having an All-American season, struggled mightily in the first half. Entering the game averaging 19.3 points (top 50 nationally) and 7.5 assists (fourth in the country), Anderson had 4 points, 1 assist and 3 turnovers in the first half, going 1 of 4 from the field. McCasland made Anderson a topic of conversation in his locker room during halftime.
“Christian [is] “One of those guys that’s a little slow to warm up to sometimes,” McCasland said. I mean, he’s not always in attack mode. He has a great feel for the game, and is a very good passer. …But in this game, I challenged him at halftime, ‘Man, you’ve got to score. You have to be more aggressive. You can’t wait to see it – no, just go to him and get the baskets.’ And man, the second half was so much fun. And when we needed bigger baskets he took us.”
Anderson scored 10 consecutive Texas Tech points during one stretch and ultimately scored 21 of the Red Raiders’ final 31 points. After five consecutive Boozer points cut Duke’s lead to 11 with 6:29 left, Anderson hit back-to-back 3s. He hit another 3 to reduce the lead after a few more possessions. He also had a three-point play with 1:14 remaining to extend Tech’s lead to four – and the winning free throw with just three seconds remaining.
He finished with 27 points and 5 assists, followed by 23 points and 4 assists in the second half.
“I started off a little slow, not quite in sync with the game,” Anderson said. “But thanks to JT, my other teammates and coaches, they just kept putting pressure on me. If we want to win this game I have to be aggressive and not just make shots, but just pressure the defense and make plays and keep defenders on their toes. So, I tried to put more emphasis on that second half, and I’m glad I was able to do that.”
Saturday was Texas Tech’s first big win of the campaign after previous losses to Illinois, Purdue and Arkansas.
Duke (11-1), meanwhile, had blown big leads on a few occasions in recent weeks — the Blue Devils led Arkansas by 13 and Florida by 15 before holding late — and it finally caught up to them.
After a non-conference slate that included wins over Texas, Kansas, Michigan State and the aforementioned Arkansas and Florida, Duke has 11 days off before ACC play begins on New Year’s Eve.
“The one thing this team has done is they responded every time,” Duke coach John Scheyer said. “In practice, in games, so I know I will have a team that is ready to work, ready to build, and a team that will take responsibility as well.
“And I think for us and for me, the only good part of it is that it gives you – winning can make you soft, it just does,” Scheyer continued. “And, so it can give you an added understanding of the value of every possession when you have a lead and things can happen where all of a sudden, you can put yourself in a position where a call can go against you, a missed free throw, a missed block out, and that could be the difference between winning and losing.”
