Red Raiders surge past Rainbows

LUBBOCK, Texas >> Zach Smith caught the lob from Texas Tech point guard Keenan Evans and slammed it down with a little more than a minute remaining.

Hawaii had lost its defensive presence in transition, its ability to keep the Red Raiders off the free-throw line — and more than anything it lost its “composure.”

And with that, any hope the Rainbow Warriors had of winning their first nonconference road game since Dec. 7, 2013 came crashing down.

Aaron Valdes scored 25 points for Hawaii, but it wasn’t enough to hold off a late surge from Texas Tech as it fell 82-74 on Saturday at United Supermarkets Arena, the first loss of the season for UH.

“It became a bit of a grind and a defensive battle in the second half,” Hawaii coach Eran Ganot said. “Obviously on the road you want to give yourself a chance to win and we did that, but … for the first time this year we lost our composure and it came back to bite us against a good team.”

That loss of composure led to Texas Tech (4-1) shooting a whopping 38 free throws, including 27 in the second half. Hawaii (4-1) was only 11-for-19 from the line. Three UH starters — Roderick Bobbitt, Stefan Jankovic and Mike Thomas — fouled out.

“It hurt us big time,” said Isaac Fleming, who scored a career-high 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting. “They went to the free-throw line 19 more times (than us) and it played a big part in their win.”

Valdes scored only six points in the first half on 2-for-5 shooting before breaking out for 19 second-half points, hitting three of his four shots from beyond the 3-point arc. He scored UH’s first 11 points after the break.

“I think it was just taking the right shots. I was kind of rushing it in the first half,” Valdes said. “Second half, my teammates were finding me in the right spots and got it to me at the right time.”

He was also shooting against a zone defense in the second half, which opened up things for Valdes but disrupted the Rainbows as a whole.

“We couldn’t guard anybody,” Texas Tech coach Tubby Smith said. “They were going by everybody. … So that is why we went to the zone and it was very effective. I think it slowed them down and I guess we were able to limit them to one shot.”

Hawaii only turned the ball over 14 times, but Texas Tech outscored it 22-11 on points off turnovers.

“Transition defense was a big difference in the game, especially in the first half,” Ganot said. “I thought we did a pretty good job in the half court. … We gave ourselves a chance, but what hurt us was our transition D — even off our makes.”

The Rainbows took an early lead due to the play of Fleming, who helped spark an 11-3 run that was highlighted by four easy buckets underneath the basket, including a pair by Bobbitt.

The run gave the Rainbows a 33-22 lead.

It just didn’t last. Tech switched defense and ended the half on a 6-0 run to pull within 41-40 at halftime. In that stretch, UH turned it over unforced on an inbounds pass.

“We didn’t finish the first half well,” Ganot said. “I thought that hurt us coming out of the gates in the second half.”

From there, Hawaii kept getting into foul trouble. Thomas fouled out with 8:33 remaining when Bobbitt and Stefan Jankovic had already picked up their fourth fouls. Both later fouled out.

And it added up at the line for the Red Raiders, who hit 30 of 38 from the stripe, including an 11-for-12 performance from Justin Gray.

“We are going to go back and watch film and determine why we are fouling there,” Ganot said. “We have to stay solid and keep them off the line.”

Valdes gave UH the lead for the last time, 56-55, on an alley-oop dunk from Bobbitt with 12:47 to play. Tech center Norense Odiase took the lead back with a jumper.

But, Valdes kept pouring it on and kept Hawaii in the game, hitting another 3-pointer with 8:12 remaining to pull the Rainbows within 65-64. But Zach Smith hit a 3-pointer for Tech to extend its lead to six and Hawaii never regained the lead.

“Basketball is a game of runs. They had their run and we had our run,” Fleming said. “We just didn’t execute at the end.”

With the loss, the Rainbows fell to 0-8 on the road all-time against current members of the Big 12, with most of those meetings coming against former WAC opponent Texas Christian. Hawaii’s last nonconference road win was Dec. 7, 2013, a 10-point decision at Northern Arizona.

Hawaii last played in Texas on Jan. 20, 2005, a 71-70 loss at UTEP.

“There was a lot for us to learn from and we will address that when we get back,” Ganot said. “Credit Texas Tech and Coach Smith and his staff for keeping their composure.”