Weak Second Half Dooms Texas Tech in Loss to Kansas State [VIDEO]

Second half troubles reared their ugly head again for the Red Raiders as Kansas State (19-9, 9-6) beat Texas Tech (13-15, 5-10) 60-56 Tuesday night at the United Spirit Arena.

The Wildcats ended a six-game road losing streak with the win as freshman Marcus Foster led his team with 17 points. Foster shot 6/13 from the field, 3/6 from three-point land. He also went 2/3 at the free throw line in 30 minutes of playing time. Two of Foster's three-pointers came at crucial points in the second half.

Texas Tech had a chance to force overtime, or win the game, in the closing seconds. The Red Raiders were down two, 58-56, and with 18 seconds left.  Jaye Crockett got a rebound off of a missed foul shot and the Red Raiders brought the ball into the front court.

With less than 10 seconds left, Robert Turner, who had possession, got bottled up on the far sideline with two K-State defenders and teammate Toddrick Gotcher. Turner loses the ball, the Wildcats recover and Wesley Iwundu's lay-up with 0.9 seconds left sealed the victory.

Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith wasn't happened with how the possession transpired. "I ended up not seeing (the turnover)," Smith said. "I was trying to call a timeout with the ref because I knew it looked bad.  Rob(ert Turner), he was off his game all night long. He was pathetic all night long, so... you don't go and hug the sideline. And I'm not sure Toddrick wanted the ball. We were running a certain play there and we had an extra timeout. They (refs) told me they must have run into each other." (You can watch a video of that play at the beginning of this story)

Turner's shooting was off, going 1/7 from the field and 0/2 from beyond-the-arc. He also had a team-high five turnovers in 22 minutes of action.

Coming into the second half, Texas Tech had a one-point halftime lead at 26-25. They extended it to nine, at 38-29, before the wheels started to fall off. Kansas State, with 13:02 left in the game, began to whittle the Tech lead down. It quickly went from 9 to 4 in just three minutes.

Then the momentum fully swung the Wildcats way after Jordan Tolbert was called for a Flagrant 1 foul with 9:09 left in the game.  Iwundu made both free throws to make the score 42-36, Texas Tech. On the ensuing possession, Foster made one of his three, three-pointers of the night for K-State to cut the lead down to 42-39.

Three possessions later, K-State's Foster made another three-pointer and he was fouled by Gotcher while shooting. Foster made the free throw to convert the rare four-point play. At that point, the Wildcats were only down a point, 47-46, at the 6:26 mark.

A minute later, an Iwundu dunk gave the Wildcats the lead 48-47. Kansas State's scoring run ended up being a 12-0 run, with the Wildcats having a 54-47 lead with 4:34 left in the game.

After the final media timeout, the Red Raiders fought back with a 9-2 scoring run. The run was started with consecutive baskets by Gotcher, Turner and Jordan Tolbert. Tolbert then made one of two free throws off of a technical foul on Nino Williams.  The free throw tied the game at 54 with 2:49 left. On the ensuing possession, the Red Raiders weren't able to convert any points and the clock moved under 90 seconds left in the game.

One possession later, Dusty Hannahs was fouled and went to the line to shoot two.  Hannahs made both of the free throws to give the Red Raiders a 56-54 lead with 1:19 left.

However, the lead was short-lived as Inwundu got open in the lane and made a lay-up for the Wildcats. Hannahs also fouled him on the play and Inwundu made the free throw to put K-State up 57-56, with 55 seconds left.

A Will Spradling free throw with 19 seconds left extended the Wildcat lead to 58-56 and set up the final sequence of possessions for Texas Tech.

Dejan Kravic lead the Red Raiders with 13 points, but he didn't play in the final 4:25 of the game. The only other Red Raider to score in double digits was Tolbert with 10 points.

Texas Tech out-rebounded Kansas State 34-24 but only made one of 10 three-pointers in the game.

The Red Raiders next game is Saturday at Baylor.  The game tips off at 12:30 and can be seen on the Big 12 Network.