Texas Tech basketball looking for 3rd-consecutive win in SEC Challenge

The Texas Tech basketball team is looking to secure its third-consecutive win in the Big 12 / SEC Challenge Saturday while also trying to stop a three-game losing streak.

We have come to the point in the college basketball season when the intensity of Big 12 play takes a break for the trumped up Big 12 / SEC challenge to help ESPN fill programming slots and try to derive some semblance of ratings in the first football-less Saturday since August. And this year, the Red Raiders are looking to continue one steak while putting an end to another.

After winning their last two games in the challenge, Tech looks for a three-game winning streak over the SEC Saturday against Arkansas. But more importantly, Chris Beard’s team needs to figure out how to stop its current 3-game losing streak which has dropped the team out of the top 10 in the national polls and out of first place in the Big 12 race.

For what its worth, the Big 12 holds a 3-1-1 advantage in the history of this event winning the first three years before the conferences played to a draw in 2017. Last year, the SEC won for the first time taking six of the ten games against a Big 12 that was touted by many as the best league in the country.

In the inaugural year of the event, 2013-14, Tech took on Alabama in Tuscaloosa. That year, the challenge was held early in the season meaning that this game was just the third game as Texas Tech head coach for Tubby Smith.

The Red Raiders were never really in the game trailing by 12 points at halftime on their way to a 76-64 loss. Alabama’s Trevor Releford went nuts scoring 29 points and knocking down five 3-pointers in the process.

Forward Jordan Tolbert and guard Robert Turner led the Red Raiders with 14 points apiece while Jaye Crockett added 12. The other two Red Raiders in the starting lineup, Dejan Kravic and Dusty Hannahs, added eight and five points respectively.

Tech was one of just three Big 12 teams to lose in the event’s first year along with West Virginia and Kansas. Life would not get much better that season as Smith’s team managed just a 14-18 record finishing 6-12 in conference play.

More from Wreck'Em Red

The next season, Tech hosted Auburn and took home a less than impressive 46-44 win. Believe it or not, a member of this year’s team was in the starting lineup that night as a true freshman. Norense Odiase led the Red Raiders with 15 points while Toddrick Gotcher added 12 off the bench. Keenan Evans, Justin Gray and Zach Smith all played that night each scoring two points.

This game was a less than inspiring exhibition of basketball as the two teams combined to shoot just 31-81 (38%) and 7-28 from 3-point range. The win moved Tech to 5-1 sparking some optimism but that quickly faded as the Red Raiders would go just 8-18 the rest of the way including only three Big 12 wins.

In 2015-16, Tech took on this year’s opponent, Arkansas in Fayetteville. In a 75-68 Razorback overtime win, Dusty Hannahs made his former team pay. After transferring from Tech back to his home state, Hannahs had 25 points to lead his new school to the win.

Zach Smith’s 19 points led the Red Raiders which had a chance to win at the end of regulation when Devaugntah Williams missed a contested layup at the buzzer. Keenan Evans had eleven points and Arkansas native Aaron Ross scored 14 off the bench.

The next year would see Chris Beard participate in the Big 12 / SEC Challenge for the first time. Tech scored a 77-64 win over LSU in Lubbock as Zach Smith had 25 points and Aaron Ross and Niem Stevenson had 15 each.

That day, Tech was unusually lethal from 3-point range knocking down 12-23 from deep. The win moved Tech to 15-6 overall and 13-1 at home. Unfortunately, the Red Raiders would win just 3 of their final eleven games that season.

While that win over a 9-11 LSU team was nothing to tout, last year’s performance in the Big 12 / SEC Challenge was one to cherish. Taking on a South Carolina team in Columbia that was coming off of a Final Four appearance, Tech survived a punishing overtime battle for a 70-63 win.

Keenan Evans was unstoppable with 31 points while Zhaire Smith was the only other Red Raider in double figures with 11. Evans saved Tech in regulation scoring eight points in the final five minutes to help Tech overcome a five-point deficit.

Next. Who should be first in ring of honor?. dark

That brings us to this year’s matchup. Arkansas is struggling in SEC play at just 2-4 but is coming off a win over Missouri on Wednesday night. The Red Raiders are given a 90% chance to win according to ESPN and hopefully that holds true as Tech certainly needs to find a way to break out of its current slump before heading back into the rigors of Big 12 play.

Home/Texas Tech Basketball