Counting down the top 10 Texas Tech sports moments of 2019

No. 9: Beating Texas in Austin in basketball for the first time in 22 years

On January 12th, the Texas Tech basketball team did something that we have not seen since 1996, it beat Texas in Austin.  Behind 22 points from Matt Mooney, the Red Raiders brought home a 68-62 win over the Horns to move to 4-0 in Big 12 play for the first time ever.

It was a monumental win at the time and looking back, we can see now that this was the first time we began to belive that last season’s team was special.

On a day when leading scorer Jarrett Culver was not his dominant self with just 14 points, Mooney was 8-10 from the field and 3-3 from deep with 14 of his points coming after halftime.  Davide Moretti added 13 points with three makes from behind the arc while Tariq Owens added 12 points and four blocks.

Consider the players that never experienced a win in Austin.  Andre Emmett, Jarius Jackson, Ronald Ross, Martin Zeno, Keenan Evans…none ever played on a team that took down UT in Austin. That’s why this win was so significant.

"“We might have mentioned (the losing streak),” Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said after the game."

Knowing that his program had not tasted victory in Austin since the last year of the Southwest Conference, Beard understood the historical significance a win at the Erwin Center would hold and he might have embellished a little bit when motivating his team.

"“Coach told us it was 30 years,” Mooney said."

Regardless of how long the drought had been, we all agreed that it was far beyond time for Tech to beat UT on the road.  That’s why seeing something that last happened before juniors in college were even born comes in at No. 9 on our list of 2019’s best moments.