Top Five Texas Tech Basketball Games of 2017-18 Season

Any win over Texas in any sport from basketball to football to team duck racing is going to be memorable.  But perhaps no win over Texas in any sport since Graham Harrell to Michael Crabtree in 2008 has been more memorable than Tech’s OT win over the Horns on the first day of February.

This was also the game when one can argue Keenan Evans truly became a Texas Tech legend.

After a back-and-forth first half, Tech pulled out to a 13-point lead with 13 minutes to play.  But Texas battled back behind 20 points from Kerwin Roach and with 49 seconds left, the Horns led 64-60.

Keenan Evans sank three consecutive free-throws to bring Tech to within a point.  Then, he drew a foul with three seconds left.  After hitting the first foul shot to tie the game Evans missed the second resulting in an extra five minutes.

In OT, Tech held a lead throughout but Roach kept Texas close with deep threes, his final of which tied the game at 71 with just 12 seconds remaining.  Then Keenan Evans did what Keenan Evans did all season.

Chris Beard did not call timeout choosing to let his senior star take the last shot.  Evans walked the ball up the court with a Jordan-esque swagger before hitting a step-back jumper as time expired.

Evans’ career-best 38-point performance was the moment when he truly became the star for the Red Raiders.  All season, he had been the team’s leading scorer and he’d been the key figure in the offense from day-one.  But the way he single-handedly took down Texas Tech’s biggest rival made him a cult hero on campus.

The win in front of a sellout crowd of 15,098 was critical in helping build momentum for the team as it turned the half-way point of Big 12 play.  Plus, it was important for Tech to continue to establish dominance over the Horns in Lubbock where Tech has won four of the last five meetings.