Texas Tech Press Release – The Texas Tech men’s basketball team made several key plays down the stretch on both ends of the floor and used a pair of late runs in both halves to pick up a 65-63 victory over No. 3 Oklahoma Wednesday at United Supermarkets Arena.
Texas Tech (16-9, 6-7 Big 12) has piled up a trio of Top 25 wins in consecutive fashion for the first time in program over an eight-day span. The last time the Red Raiders defeated an Associated Press Top 5 opponent came when Tech upended No. 5 Texas by an 83-80 decision on March 1, 2008.
The Red Raiders put together an 8-2 finishing kick over the last 2:45 to turn a four-point deficit into a two-point triumph after Tech ripped off an 8-0 flurry in the closing 1:40 of the opening half.
“I just want to commend our players,” Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith said. “It was really an intense game and a great college basketball game against one of the top teams in the country. There’s no one in the business that I respect more than Lon Kruger. He’s a great friend and he’s a real gentleman in this business. Our guys were ready to play. They came with the right attitude. I just can’t say enough about the effort that we gave tonight.”
Aaron Ross dialed up a team-leading 17 points on 6-of-12 from the floor sparked by three treys. He extended his career-long run to six straight games in double figures.
Keenan Evans came away with 12 of his 14 points during the second half coupled with three assists and two steals over his 30 minutes of action. He was 4-of-6 shooting and buried 5-of-7 from the free throw line highlighted by a trio of clutch free throws inside the final 30 seconds. Evans has secured double figures in a career-best four consecutive outings.
Zach Smith filled the box score with 10 points, nine rebounds, two assists, one block and a steal logging another 35 minutes of court time. He has pieced together three straight games with 10-plus points for the first time since the Richmond-Texas-Iowa State contests from Dec. 29-Jan. 6.
Toddrick Gotcher tallied seven of his eight points in the final two minutes of each half. He grabbed five rebounds which included the game-clincher as time expired.
Matthew Temple chipped in five points, four rebounds and two assists, while Justin Gray and Devaugntah Williams added three points apiece. Gray and Williams did combine to claim seven of its nine rebounds on the defensive end.
Texas Tech worked its way to a 24-of-57 shooting effort and sank 7-of-19 from beyond the three-point arc. The Red Raiders connected on 10-of-17 at the free throw line. Tech notched 25 of the game’s 32 bench points and has amassed 271 total bench over its last nine games.
The Sooners (20-5, 8-5 Big 12) were limited to a 21-for-55 shooting clip. The 21 field goals and 38.2 percent ratio are Oklahoma’s third-lowest marks of the season. OU was bottled up for a 6-for-23 from three-point territory and misfired on its nine attempts during the second half. The Sooners knocked down 15-for-21 from the charity stripe.
Jordan Woodard broke out of his recent struggles with a 25-point performance which is only behind his career-high 28 points against Harvard on Dec. 25. Buddy Hield posted a Big 12 season’s low of 16 points on 6-for-16 from the field and committed five turnovers. Isaiah Cousins totaled 10 points and six rebounds for the Sooners.
“We sent a lot of different people because he (Hield) got a few of us in foul trouble,” Smith said. “It started with Justin Gray … I thought he did a good job on him. Toddrick (Gotcher) guarded him some and so did Devaugntah Williams. We threw different looks at him and limited his touches as best we could. I thought we did a good job there. We just played good team defense. When he (Hield) did go to the basket, we sent multiple people to try to stop him. That’s what we tried to do tonight, and it was effective.”
With the Red Raiders down 61-57 at the 2:45 mark, Gotcher rattled home a trey on the right baseline off a nice feed from Smith. On the ensuing OU possession, Evans collected a steal and went coast-to-coast for the go-ahead layup to make it 62-61 with 1:56 left.
Tech forced Hield to miss a stepback jumper on the left baseline. Then, the Red Raiders crashed the glass for a pair of offensive rebounds which forced Oklahoma to foul Evans. He calmly sank two free throws to extend the advantage to 64-61 with 30.7 seconds remaining.
Woodard drove to the basket and hit a 10-foot runner off glass to bring the Sooners within 64-63. Evans split his free throws as Tech maintained a 65-63 edge with 14.2 seconds to go. Following an OU timeout, Cousins went towards the basket and was unable to connect with Khadeem Lattin on a lob pass. The ball was deflected to Ryan Spangler who missed a jump hook in the lane. Gotcher emerged the rebound and went racing up the floor as the buzzer sounded.
“We’ve been in quite a few of them (late, close games) this year,” Smith said. “We’ve learned from our experiences with close games. The poise we had was impressive. We’re playing with patience and playing with poise. We’re not panicking. We’re aggressively getting to the glass. A huge play was when we were down four – we inbound the ball to Zach (Smith) who had a nice shot fake. He drove the ball and dished it off to Toddrick Gotcher in the corner. Toddrick was struggling tonight, but he’s a gamer. He stepped up at the right time and made a big time three which cut it to one. It was a huge play. Then, we got a stop at the other end. The key has been our stops. We’ve been playing much better defense over the last five games and that’s been a big help.”
Oklahoma fired out to an early 10-4 advantage at the 13:20 mark of the opening half fueled by three Hield treys. The Sooners led for a majority of the opening 20 minutes before Texas Tech scored the closing eight points of the stanza to take a 34-31 lead into the locker room.
Gray kickstarted the run with a midrange jumper on the right elbow. After Ross and Gray split two free throws, Evans found a high-flying Smith for an acrobatic layup through contact. Cousins misfired on a jumper, and Gotcher went the distance for a left-handed layup to beat the buzzer to vault the Red Raiders to the three-point halftime spread.
Neither team could find much breathing room in a second half which featured eight ties and 10 lead changes. A Ross three-ball from the top of the key placed Texas Tech in front 57-55 with 4:46 remaining before Oklahoma tacked on six consecutive points sparked by two free throws courtesy of Cousins and Woodard.
“I think we are hungry,” Smith said. “We’ve been underdogs for quite a few games. We have the incentive to get to postseason play – it’s at hand and a possibility for us. I believe the kids have really bonded. You can tell that they’re really enjoying each other and playing for each other. When you do that, you pull for one another to be successful, and consequently that’s what happened. When you believe it, sometimes things happen for you. They’re truly playing as one unit. We’re getting assists and cutting back on our turnovers. Once again, we had over 40 deflections again tonight. That’s where the difference has been – in our defensive intensity. It takes a while for players to understand our philosophy. We’ve done some subtle things to help alleviate some of the defensive problems we’ve had, and it’s been a big help.”
Texas Tech returns to the road for the fourth straight weekend and meets Oklahoma State on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. CT from Gallagher-Iba Arena, and the game will be televised by ESPNU in addition to being available on www.WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app.
