LUBBOCK, Texas - Dejan Kravic certainly made the most of his minutes on Sunday afternoon. Kravic scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds, in just nine minutes of play, to lead Texas Tech to a 79-57 over Central Arkansas.
“I haven’t really been playing the toughest this season,” Kravic said. “I was coming off the bench and I knew I had to play even harder, playing a different role. I had to play as tough as I can. Inside I knew we had the advantage so I went at them.”
Jaye Crockett, Jordan Tolbert and Toddrick Gotcher each added 10 points for the Red Raiders.
Oliver Wells led Central Arkansas (2-5) with 14 points, shooting 4 of 6 from three point range while Jalen Jackson and Deshone McClure each added 11 points.
The teams traded the lead five times early in the first half until a Kader Tapsoba jumper ultimately regained the lead for the Red Raiders, 23-22, with 6:08 remaining. Robert Turner and Aaron Ross scored Texas Tech’s (7-3) next 13 points, helping them take a 39-26 lead into the half.
The Bears stormed out the second half on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 39-33 with 17:19 left in the game until Kravic scored eight consecutive points allowing Tech to pull away. Ten of Kravic’s 13 points came in just six minutes of play in the second half. Gotcher also came off the bench with a hot hand shooting 4 of 5 from the field and 2 of 3 from three-point range.
“He comes every day ready to play,” Texas Tech Coach Tubby Smith said. “He’s very quiet, a real humble kid. He’s going to find his way into our lineup with the way he’s played.”
Overall, nearly half of Tech’s points (37 of 79) came off of the bench.
“The energy didn’t seem to be there like we needed it to be, we didn’t move the ball as quickly as I would like, so I made a change,” Smith said.
Once the Red Raiders took a lead or more than 10 points, they picked up the pace and piled on the points. As a team, Tech had 11 steals and 17 assists, which resulted in 32 points off of turnovers.
With 8:31 left in the game, a Toddrick Gotcher pass that resulted in a Kravic alley-oop layup, ignited a 12-0 run for the Red Raiders and helped them pull ahead 61-39 and they led by as much as 26 with 6:01 left.
“Coach Smith’s halftime message was basically to pick it up and do the fundamentals, keep it simple,” Gotcher said.
Texas Tech, which had a clear height advantage at nearly every position, out rebounded UCA 36 to 25 and scored 40 points in the paint to UCA’s 18.
“I think coach Smith has this team ahead of schedule,” said UCA interim Coach Clarence Finley. “The reason he has it is they are very, very, very patient offensively.”TOP 25 MEN NO. 2 SYRACUSE 68, ST. JOHN’S 63
C.J. Fair and Tyler Ennis both scored 21 points, and No. 2 Syracuse pulled out a 68-63 victory over St. John’s (6-3) at Madison Square Garden in New York. Fair hit three big shots from the same spot - about 15 feet from the basket on the right baseline. The smooth left-handed shooter tied the game from there at 58 with 6:51 to go, then he made two more in the final 3 minutes as the Orange (10-0) were able to open a lead as big as seven points. D’Angelo Harrison led St. John’s with 21 points on 6-of-19 shooting, including 1 of 5 from three-point range.
NO. 10 VILLANOVA 73, LA SALLE 52
Darrun Hilliard scored 21 points and Josh Hart added 13, lifting host Villanova past La Salle. The Wildcats (10-0) have now beaten city rivals Penn, Saint Joseph’s and the Explorers (5-5) by at least 20 points in each game. La Salle’s Jerrell Wright scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half.
NO. 24 MISSOURI 66, W. MICHIGAN 60
Jabari Brown scored 15 points while Jordan Clarkson and Earnest Ross both added 12 to help No. 24 Missouri defeat Western Michigan in Columbia, Mo.
Missouri (10-0) looked rusty at times after an eight-day break for final exams and clung to a 47-45 lead with 10:46 remaining. Tony Criswell’s jumper two minutes later capped a 9-0 run as the Tigers pulled away.
Missouri stretched its NCAA-best homecourt winning streak to 25 games and has won 80 consecutive games against nonconference opponents at Mizzou Arena dating to the 2005-06 opener.
St. Louis native David Brown led Western Michigan (5-4) with 18 points and Shayne Whittington added 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Sports, Pages 19 on 12/16/2013