Texas Tech basketball: Top 5 individual performances of 2018-19

No. 2: Jarrett Culver’s 31 points carry Texas Tech to first Big 12 title

When a title is on the line, there is an opportunity for players to become legends.  And when Texas Tech needed to beat a very good Iowa State team on the road in the regular season finale to secure a share of the program’s first Big 12 title, the best player on the team cemented his stats as a true legend of the program.

Lubbock’s own Jarrett Culver put up 31 points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out three assists in the Red Raiders 80-73 win in Ames in what proved to be his career-defining performance.  And in the process, he sowed up the Big 12 Player of the Year award, making him the first Red Raider to earn that honor.

Culver was unstoppable, especially in the second half when he had 19 points.  And it was his driving layup to put Tech up 74-69 with under a minute to play that proved to be the game’s biggest bucket.

Davide Moretti had 20 points and Matt Mooney added 13 but outside of Culver, the rest of the Red Raiders hit just 16 of 46 shots.  Culver meanwhile, was 12-19 including 4-8 from 3-point range, something that he struggled with in Big 12 play.

Unfortunately for Culver, he was not able to replicate this performance in the Final Four where he struggled in both games.  But that does not diminish his standing as perhaps the greatest Texas Tech basketball player in program history and his career day at Iowa State will be a performance that Red Raider fans remember forever.