 "Photo: Brad Tollefson")
Before the season started, Texas Tech basketball coach Pat Knight said his team would benefit from three consecutive games to start the 2009-2010 season.
Not only were the Red Raiders able to learn about themselves, but the team also finished the weekend perfect with wins against South Dakota 88-49, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 66-59 and Oregon State 64-60.
“To come away 3-0, that’s the best we could hope for,” Knight said. “But like the old Meat Loaf song, two-out-of-three ain’t bad. I still would have been proud of these guys, but now it goes from a good weekend to a great weekend.”
Tech finished its first weekend of the season on a high note winning the 2009 Duel in the Desert Tournament — a round-robin tournament hosted by the Red Raiders — when it defeated Oregon State in the final game.
Prior to the start of the tournament, Knight said playing three games in three days would give the coaching staff an early head start in evaluating the team.
Knight must have learned there is not going to be much of a learning curve for South Plains College transfer David Tairu.
Tairu scored 42 points through his first three games of his Red Raider career and saved his best performance of the weekend for last against Oregon State, scoring 19 points.
For his efforts, Tairu was awarded the Duel in the Desert Tournament Most Valuable Player award.
“It really doesn’t mean anything,” Tairu said. “It’s really a team effort. It’s one of those things that you’re glad that you have it but there’s really more of a team aspect of it.”
Tairu might be right.
Forward Mike Singletary finished the weekend with a team-leading 44 points and chipped in 15 points against the Beavers, second to Tairu.
Forward Darko Cohadarevic also impressed throughout the weekend with 28 points and 22 rebounds through the first three games of the season. Guard John Roberson had 31 points through the course of the weekend.
The Red Raiders’ claims of physical fitness may have rung true as well.
After controlling the lead for almost the entire game, Tech found itself in a struggle to put the Beavers away.
With less than four minutes remaining in the game, Oregon State took a 47-45 lead. From that point, the lead changed seven times in less than three minutes.
With the game tied at 54, Singletary gave Tech the last lead it would needed with 1:45 on the clock and Tairu solidified that lead 45 seconds later with his third 3-pointer of the game.
Oregon State hit a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left to cut Tech’s lead in half, but Cohadarevic scored a on a layup and Singletary hit two free throws before Oregon State’s Seth Tarver scored on a buzzer-beating jumper to bring the score to 64-60 and Tech’s record to 3-0.
“We knew we had three tough games in a row,” Singletary said. “We knew we had to win all three games and we accomplished our task. It’s a good start.”
Tech faces Northwestern State 7 p.m. Thursday in the United Spirit Arena.
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