KANSAS CITY, Mo. — BYU’s 81-67 loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 quarterfinals on Thursday was painful to watch.

And play.

“We kind of got punked right away,” Cougar forward Noah Waterman said. “They got a lot of second-chance points. They hit some tough shots. We’ve really got to hit first on the glass and we didn’t do that.”

The BYU locker room at T-Mobile Center was not a happy place to be.

“Right as soon as the game ended, we talked through all the things that frustrated us, just the players,” Cougar guard Spencer Johnson said. “Then we talked about it with the coaches. We can take and digest those things. As much as this game hurts, as much as it sucks, if we can use it as a learning opportunity, it would be beneficial for us.”

Moving forward is a lot easier because BYU is going to be a single-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“I think we’ve got to critique each other a little more,” Waterman said. “I kind of felt that on the court today. But we’ve definitely got to uplift each other. We’ve had a great run this season. A lot of people don’t get to play in the post-season. We’re lucky enough to do that because we’ve had a good season. We’re definitely going to be really confident going forward, to try and shock a lot of people. So it’s going to be fun.”

The Cougars were trending toward a No. 4 or No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but it’s uncertain how much Thursday’s loss could affect that seeding or the location of their first-round game, which could be as close as the Delta Center in Salt Lake. The other three Thursday-Saturday sites are Omaha, Pittsburgh and Charlotte.

“Everybody is going to refocus,” Waterman said. “We’ve got the best locker room in the country. We communicate all the time about it. And that’s one of the reasons we’ve been successful all season. So we’re just going to keep going and move on to March Madness.”

With Selection Sunday coming up in a few days, BYU can shift their focus the post-season and a new opponent.

“That’s a good thing because we just can’t sit on this for too long,” Johnson said. “As much as it doesn’t feel good and it’s painful right now that we kind of laid an egg out there, we have another game. We have a chance to end this season in the right way.”

Hot and cold

BYU was 14 of 30 (47%) from the 3-point line in Wednesday’s victory against UCF. The Cougars were just 7 of 35 (20%) in Thursday’s loss to Texas Tech. The poor shooting seemed to affect all other aspects of the Cougars’ game, including defense, ball security and rebounding.

“I felt like today we got a little distracted by it,” Johnson said. “Normally, this team is really, really good at bouncing back from things like that. We’re like ‘The shots are fine. It’s okay. They’re gonna start falling,’ and we’re gonna focus on these other things. Today, I feel like we got just a little distracted by that and that kind of leaked into other part of our game.”

Injury update

BYU big man Aly Kahlifa played just eight minutes against Texas Tech. Toward the end of the first half, Kahlifa came out of the game, loosened the shoe on his left foot and went into the locker room with the training staff. Khalifa returned to the bench but didn’t play in the second half.

“He had an ankle that flared up so he wasn’t available in the second half,” Pope said.

Khalifa finished with three points, two rebounds and one assist.

Guest of honor

Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, a BYU alum, was at the game on Thursday. He chatted before the game with BYU President Shane Reese, BYU Advancement Vice President Keith Vorkink and BYU Director of Athletics Tom Holmoe.

First time

The Cougars ended their first adventure in the Big 12 Tournament with a 1-1 record.

“It’s an incredible venue,” BYU coach Mark Pope said. “We’re so grateful to be here. We’re so grateful to be a part of this league, even on days like this. We’re still just full of gratitude for the opportunity to be here and excited to learn and be pushed and challenged and grow. This league certainly does that and it certainly gave us the opportunity today.”

Tip-ins: Thursday was the second time this season that BYU trailed by 20 or more more points. The Cougars got down 20 points against Oklahoma State on Feb. 17. … With 43 points, Thursday was the 12th time this season BYU’s bench has scored 40 or more. … The Cougars are now 4-4 against Top 25 teams this season. … The 15-0 run in the second half was BYU’s largest of the season against a Big 12 opponent. … Jaxson Robinson extended his 3-point field goal streak to 20 games. … Point guard Dallin Hall had seven assists on Thursday, giving him 166 for the season (seventh in program history).

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