3 takeaways from Texas Tech basketball's loss at Houston

HOUSTON — The Texas Tech basketball team went on the road against one of the top teams in the country and delivered a complete effort against Houston.

Ultimately, the Red Raiders were undone by costly turnovers down the stretch in the 69-65 loss to the Cougars. Jaylen Petty did his best to will the Red Raiders (11-4, 1-1 Big 12) to victory with a 20-point effort and JT Toppin added another double-double, but 16 turnovers were the doom for Texas Tech.

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Here's the biggest takeaways from the game.

First half belongs to Texas Tech basketball's Jaylen Petty

With the Cougars focused on shutting down Christian Anderson and JT Toppin, the Red Raiders needed somebody to step up, especially in the first half when Houston had an opportunity to start pulling away.

Jaylen Petty answered the call repeatedly, hitting a key baseline jumper to halt a 7-0 Houston run and drilled his fourth 3-pointer of the half in the waning moments to send the teams into halftime tied 31-31. He led all scorers at intermission with 14 points.

Most complete game for Texas Tech basketball this season

Knowing the Red Raiders were going to be down to just Toppin as a big man against Houston's lengthy roster, the question was how would Texas Tech hold up.

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Through the 12-minute mark of the second half, excellently. The Red Raiders weathered every storm the Cougars had to offer and took a 44-41 lead over Houston. That was with Christian Anderson providing a total of 4 points in the first 28 minutes of action.

Just wait for reinforcements to arrive

Josiah Moseley went through the entirety of the Red Raiders' pregame warmups while Marial Akuentok went through the first two thirds. Both were ruled out well before the game tipped, so they could not have played.

However, that was the most gameday activity either had accumulated in the last month or so, so they could very well be on their way back to the court in short order. With a game like this on the road sans depth in the post, look for Texas Tech to become even stronger when some reinforcements arrive.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Instant takeaways from Texas Tech basketball's loss to Houston