Texas Tech @ Louisiana State preview

Texas Tech at Louisiana State

Last Meeting ( Jan 28, 2017 ) Louisiana State 64, Texas Tech 77

No. 10 Texas Tech and LSU take a break at the midpoint of their conferences seasons to meet in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Saturday afternoon in Baton Rouge, La.

Despite their lofty ranking, the Red Raiders (11-5) are just 4-4 in the Big 12 and stuck in the middle of the conference pack after a last-second 88-87 loss at No. 11 West Virginia on Monday.

The Tigers (11-4) are tied for the second-fewest losses in the SEC after a 78-66 victory at Texas A&M on Tuesday improved their conference record to 6-3.

"We didn't execute on defense down the stretch," Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said of allowing a season worst point total on Monday. "Obviously, we scored enough points to win. But both ends of the floor are connected with each other.

"This is not Texas Tech defense. We don't give up (nearly) 90 points around here."

Mac McClung scored 24 of his season-high 30 points in the second half to lead the Red Raiders.

"We need to get a few more guys to show up in these big moments," Beard said. "We had some good individual performances, but only two guys in double figures -- that's just not going to get it done."

Texas Tech led West Virginia 75-63 with seven minutes left, but Miles McBride scored 15 of his team-high 24 points in a finishing 25-12 run that included a game-winning basket with six seconds left.

"We're more than halfway through the season," Beard said. "It's time to start winning these games."

LSU trailed Texas A&M on the road before scoring the final 18 points of the game, holding the Aggies scoreless for the final 8:49.

"We needed to play with great energy to get this done," Tigers coach Will Wade said. "I saw great effort and execution and that will get it done. I thought our guys did that. We had some warriors, most of those guys played some major minutes."

Four played combined to score 71 of LSU's 78 points. Cameron Thomas led the way with 28, which increased his nation-leading number of games among freshmen with 20 or more points to 10. Javonte Smart scored 19, Trendon Watford had 13 and Darius Days added 11.

"We wanted to lock in (defensively) as a whole team," Smart said. "We know that most people say our defense is our weakest link, but we found us. We were able to do a big thing and find the help from our coaching staff. Locking in on defense first allows for the offense to catch up."

The strong finish was especially important because the Tigers were coming off consecutive lopsided losses to Alabama and Kentucky.

"We were desperate to win this game," Watford said. "We had already dropped two in a row and were not looking to move it to three in a row. I think our biggest thing was to come out and respond. We did a good job of sticking to that."

--Field Level Media