LUBBOCK, Texas (Texas tech Press Release)– Devaugntah Williams made his lone basket on a driving layup with 0.5 seconds remaining in overtime to vault the Texas Tech men’s basketball team to a dramatic 63-61 victory over Oklahoma State Wednesday at the United Supermarkets Arena.
For Williams, it marked the second consecutive season that he provided the game-winning basket versus Oklahoma State (11-11, 2-7 Big 12). He buried a three-pointer with 10 seconds left to lift the Red Raiders to a 63-62 victory last season.
Texas Tech (13-8, 3-6 Big 12) overcame a slow start and a 12-point deficit during the first half. The Red Raiders connected on 3-of-21 shooting to start the game. With the victory, Tech has equaled its overall and conference win totals from a season ago.
“It was certainly a very tough, hard-fought game,” Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith said. “We’re very proud of our players, and their resiliency and courage. We’ve lost a lot of close games, but tonight we found a way to win. I want to commend our guys for showing a lot of toughness and stepping up. Oklahoma State is pretty athletic and pretty talented. When Jawun Evans went out – they were having their way when he was in there. I hope he’s OK. We’re very happy to get this win, a much-needed win.”
Aaron Ross racked up a career-high 22 points coupled with seven rebounds and two assists over a career-best 35 minutes of action. He buried a career-high four three-pointers and was a flawless 6-of-6 at the free throw line. Ross has secured double figures in six of his last seven outings.
Toddrick Gotcher equaled his Big 12 career-high with 18 points. Like Ross, Gotcher dialed up a quartet of treys and sank all six of his foul shots. It was Gotcher’s highest scoring effort since Tech’s Big 12 opener versus Texas on Jan. 2.
Keenan Evans tacked on seven points and matched a career-best with three steals, while Zach Smith registered five points and a team-leading eight rebounds.
Making his first start of the season, Justin Gray was limited to two points but grabbed five rebounds before he fouled out in overtime. Matthew Temple added three blocks and three rebounds.
Texas Tech was 18-of-55 from the floor but drained 8-of-18 on three-pointers. The Red Raiders notched a 19-of-24 effort at the charity stripe. Texas Tech edged out a 28-20 advantage in bench points and has amassed 163 bench points over its last five games.
The Cowboys totaled a 19-for-52 shooting performance and misfired on 13 of their 17 attempts from beyond the three-point arc. Oklahoma State was 19-for-24 from the foul line.
Leyton Hammonds tucked away 14 points and 10 rebounds whereas Jeff Newberry chipped in 13 points and four steals for the Cowboys. Jawun Evans scored 10 points in the opening half but missed the remainder of the game due to injury. Chris Olivier picked up 11 points and six rebounds off the bench.
Facing a 47-40 deficit at the 6:32 mark of the second half, Texas Tech ripped off seven straight points over the next 2:15 to knot the score at 47-47.
Smith sparked the run with a free throw and flew in for a thunderous two-handed dunk off a Williams miss. Then, Williams split a pair of free throws to bring the Red Raiders back to within one possession. After a Gotcher block, Ross canned his fourth three-pointer of the contest from the top of the key to make it 47-47 with 3:53 to go.
The Cowboys responded with six of the seven points capped by a traditional Olivier three-point play to go back ahead 53-48 with 1:54 left.
Texas Tech fired back with the final five points of regulation. Ross turned an offensive rebounds into a putback layup. The Red Raiders consolidated a defensive stop into a Gotcher trey from the right wing to tie the score at 53-53 with 33.5 seconds remaining and force the extra session.
Oklahoma State took a 61-58 edge with 59.3 seconds left in overtime on a Tyree Griffin midrange jumper late in the shot clock. Like at the end of regulation, Gotcher provided the equalizer on a triple off a screen with 39.8 seconds on the clock.
On the ensuing possession, the Red Raiders forced OSU into its 21st turnover to set the stage for Williams’ heroics. He used a shot fake at the top of the key and drove past his man for the game-winning layup through traffic.
“D-Will is a kid who has really done a lot for our team and for our program, but he’s just struggling shooting the ball,” Smith said. “This will certainly help his psyche, and it helped the team. It was a play designed to get the ball to Toddrick, but they did a good job of switching out and denying. We always say, the last resort is attack the basket off the dribble, and that’s what he did.”
“I feel like it’s a confidence booster,” Williams said. “I know I’ve been in a little slump, but I got teammates to help pick up the effort. It was a good team win. We wanted TG [Toddrick Gotcher] to take the last shot. I told him if I get it I’m not going miss. I saw [Anthony] Allen coming to block the shot, but I just kept my eyes on the rim. We didn’t want to go to a second overtime.”
The Cowboys led throughout a majority of the first half and build a 27-15 advantage at the 3:39 mark. Oklahoma State carried a 31-23 edge into the locker on the strength of its defense which forced the Red Raiders into an 8-for-32 shooting clip. Hammonds and Evans combined for 22 of the team’s 31 points on a crisp 7-for-10 from the field.
“We’ve worked hard on that. That’s one of the areas we’ve really stressed. We’ve been stressing it all year long, but we finally we able to do it in late game situations and get some stops,” Smith said. “Zach (Smith) was big tonight. He was all over the court with eight rebounds. He probably had 10-to-15 deflections tonight. That’s what we have to do to be competitive. We’ve been working on late game situations and concentrating and focusing over the last couple days.”
Texas Tech begins the second half of the Big 12 schedule Saturday at Texas. Tip time is set for 1 p.m. CT from the Erwin Center, and the game will be televised by the Longhorn Network in addition to being available on www.WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app.
