LUBBOCK, Texas — No. 22 Texas Tech and Texas played a nip and tuck game the whole way, but at the end it came down to shot making, and the Longhorns’ ability to do that sealed their 68-58 win.
Andrew Jones finished tough looks around the rim and Courtney Ramey drained contested 3-pointers to give Texas a 60-53 lead late.
The Red Raiders countered with five straight points of their own, but after another Texas bucket Jahmi’us Ramsey missed a dunk and Matt Coleman scored on the other end with 41 seconds left, essentially putting the game away.
Texas Tech made two of its last nine shots, not enough to keep pace with the Longhorns.
“We had open shots,” Kyler Edwards said. “It’s just, the majority of them didn’t fall.”
The game was back-and-forth throughout. Neither team could sustain a run long enough to form a comfortable lead until Texas did in the last couple of minutes, and both had answers when the other hit a big shot for most of the game.
No Texas Tech player played exceptionally well. Ramsey was the high scorer with 13 points, but he, Kyler Edwards and Davide Moretti all shot below 35 percent.
Terrence Shannon did show some positive signs. The freshman hasn’t had as much of an impact since getting relegated to a bench role four games ago, but he was active today. Shannon attacked the glass with gusto and drained several jumpshots in the second half, finishing with 10 points.
Andrew Jones did the heavy lifting for Texas. The sophomore guard burned the Red Raiders outside with jumpers and drove to the rim for crafty finishes, finishing the day with 22 points.
Jones and his teammates’ impressive shot making bought the Longhorns an early lead. They capitalized on open looks and made five 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes of the game. Two of those came from freshman Brock Cunningham, who hadn’t made a 3-pointer all season before Saturday.
The Red Raiders closed the half strong, turning a one-point deficit into a six point lead in less than a minute.
Kevin McCullar scored under the rim and Texas’ Donovan Williams missed a thunderous dunk attempt. Unhappy with the lack of a foul call, Shaka Smart was assessed a technical foul. Moretti made both free throws and then a 3-pointer, completing the quick seven-point swing.
After an off game in Oklahoma, Moretti found his stroke in the first half against the Longhorns. He nailed three first half 3-pointers, but was held scoreless in the second.
The Red Raiders weren’t able to take that late first half momentum into the second. Texas stormed out of the half with five straight points, and the remainder of the game was hotly contested.
Jones and Courtney Ramey hit back-to-back tough shots as the Longhorns took a four-point lead with five minutes remaining. They went into a full court press at times in the second half, and while the Red Raiders didn’t struggle with turnovers, it flustered their offense and many of their possessions ran late into the shot clock.
“The main adjustment was just to ramp our aggressiveness up,” Smart said when asked about halftime adjustments. “The key is that our guys believed in it.
Ramsey made a layup and McCullar scored an and-one to cut the lead to two, but a Royce Hamm tip-in and Ramsey’s missed dunk put the game away.
The Red Raiders were outscored 38-21 in the second half, as they let a lead slip away and could not match Texas’ shooting down the stretch.
“It was kind of tale of two halves,” Beard said. “They were the more aggressive team in the second half.”
This team has now lost two straight, and matchups with the two best teams in the country, Baylor and Kansas, loom.
