Chris Walker walked into the post-game press conference on
November 1 following the Red Raiders 88-63 victory against University of Texas
– Permian Basin in an exhibition game and jokingly said he was happy to
get his first win as a head coach, although it wasn’t official.
On Friday, Walker got to walk into the post-game press
conference and sit down and officially claim his first win as the interim head
coach of the Red Raiders following an 89-79 victory against Prairie View
A&M inside the United Spirit Arena.
“I
mean it’s a great feeling Kirby (Hocutt) gave me the game ball, in the locker
room and the guys clapped it up for me,” he said. “That’s the first thing I did
was thank my player because like I told them this will be etched in stone I’ll
always remember you guys no matter what happens in my lifetime. It’s gratifying
to have been on that journey for such a long time and now to finally get your
chance and get your first win, it’s just something you always dream about and
now that it’s happened I want number two.”
Following
a slow start for both teams to the game, tied 7-7 after five minutes and 23
seconds had already ticked off the clock, the Red Raiders (1-0) were able to
get their offense clicking.
Tech
went on a 12-2 run, powered by the three-point shooting of Jamal Williams, who
finished 4-for-8 from behind the arc chipping in 15 points on the night.
“I
had fun,” Williams said. “Coming from a JUCO to here is a big difference. I
just played my heart out tonight, gave it my all.”
After
a while it looked as though the Red Raiders were going to steamroll the
Panthers after extending their lead to 20 points, 51-31, with 3:09 left in the
first half.
But
Prairie View A&M (0-1) would battle its way back closing the first half on
a 7-0 run.
The
run would continue into the second half, Panthers getting within six to the Red
Raiders on the scoreboard with 11:20 left in the game, after that Tech was able
to hold off the multiple runs by the Panthers for the 10-point victory.
Despite
the loss, Prairie View A&M head coach Byron Rimm II said he was proud of
his guys considering the injuries to some of his main players.
“I
was quite proud of our guys, it was a lot of our guys first division I
basketball game so I was very happy with that,” he said. “We are a lot better
basketball team, we had a little adversity from some of the foul calls, some of
our bigs are overly aggressive their first game, so we kind of figured that was
going to happen but our guys did a good job.”
Rimm
did not have the services of both Jourdan DeMuynck, who averaged 10.1 points
per game last season, and Demondre Chapman, who chipped in 8.4 points per game
last season.
For
the Red Raiders, there were four different players to break into double digits
in scoring with sophomore forward Jordan Tolbert leading the way.
Tolbert
finished with a team-high 16 points and seven rebounds, and even when the
Panthers got a little to close for comfort Tolbert said the team held together
well.
“We
felt like we had to stick together to overcome that,” he said, “it was a tough
point in the game, it felt like we weren’t getting calls, but that’s what it’s
about sticking together and coming out with a victory.”
Now the
Red Raiders have just a few days to prepare for their next test against
Nebraska-Omaha on Wednesday and Walker said there were some good things that he
took away from this game and some things they still need to work on before the
next time they lace it up.
“What
I did like about game one is that we got the win. I also liked the fact that we
were ahead again and just like in the exhibition game we had to fight through
some adversity,” he said. “We got seven new players, we got two freshman and
two guys who are primary ball handlers that have never played at this level and
we played against a very experienced team. They grinded it out and once again
we almost scored 90 points again and that’s something we want to do.
“Obviously
in the second half we need to limit our turnovers and I think we got a little
careless in the second half and we just have to work on our focus.”