Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders survive slugfest with West Virginia

Wednesday night in Lubbock, the Texas Tech basketball team took home an 89-81 victory over West Virginia to drastically improve its tournament resume.

It’s the time of year when people begin to talk about the quadrants a team’s wins fit into. And prior to Wednesday, the Texas Tech basketball team owned just one Quadrant-1 win on the season, the gold standard of college basketball victories when it comes to consideration for the NCAA Tournament.

But by taking down No. 12 West Virginia 89-81 in Lubbock, Chris Beard and his team put an end to a two-game winning streak and moved off the early tournament bubble, at least for now. It was a game that featured 54 fouls, 72 free throws, four technical fouls, an intentional foul, and 33 turnovers between the two teams.

What it didn’t feature though was a lead change. That’s because Tech scored the first bucket of the game and after the Mountaineers knotted the score with a layup, Tech would go on a 10-2 run to jump out to a lead that was in danger several times throughout the evening but was never taken away.

Facing the No. 3 team in the nation in the KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency rankings the Red Raiders had three players surpass the 20-point mark. Davide Moretti led the way with 25 points, which came on a very efficient 6-10 shooting. He was 4-5 from 3-point range and 9-9 at the free-throw line.

Interestingly, six of his free-throws came as a result of West Virginia Technical fouls. In a game where whistles were more frequently heard than bells at a casino, the Mountaineers saw Gabe Osabuohien, Jermaine Haley, and Oscar Tshiebwe all assessed technical fouls in the second half.

Tech was not left out of the technical party as Terrence Shannon also picked one up. It as perhaps the only blemish on a sterling night for the freshman.

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With 23 points, he came within one point of equaling his career-high, which he established in December against his hometown school, DePaul. On Wednesday, he did even more damage at the line than Moretti as he went 12-14 for the game.

Fellow freshman Jahmi’us Ramsey was the third Red Raider in the 20-point club. Shaking out of a slump that stretched back five games to his last 20-point outing of the season, he rediscovered his outside shot as he hit 5-8 shots from deep on his way to 21 points.

Heading into the game, he had hit just three of his last 21 looks from 3-point range. So Wednesday, he did away with the protective mask he’d been wearing all season in what was a superstitious move to try to get his mojo back and it worked so well that Tech fans are now searching for the mask in an attempt to destroy it with fire so that we can ensure that the Ramsey we saw on Wednesday is the one that hangs around for the rest of the year.

As a team, the Red Raiders were 11-17 from 3-point range. That came just one game after going 3-19 in Saturday’s loss to Kentucky. It was a night that saw the Red Raiders establish a season-high for 3-pointers in Big 12 play despite not getting one from Kyler Edwards.

The sophomore was one of the only Red Raiders that struggled to score on Wednesday. Just 2-6 from the field for five points while also turning the ball over six times before fouling out, the explosive scorer came back to Earth after almost single-handedly carrying his team to a win over Kentucky with 18 points.

Fortunately, his teammates picked up the slack in a big way. Senior forward T.J. Holyfield had 11 points and five rebounds, which was a major improvement over his 0-point, 1-rebound showing the first time Tech and West Virginia met this year.

Playing as aggressively as we have seen him play all season, he also had four blocks. In fact, he completely outplayed his counterpart, Oscar Tshiebwe.

The 6-foot-10 true freshman came into the game leading his team in points (11.8 per game) and rebounds (9.4 per game) but was held to only four points and three rebounds. That’s 14 fewer rebounds than he had the last time he saw the Red Raiders.

But WVU’s other big man, sophomore Derek Culver was a monster, especially at the free-throw line. Just a 56.8% shooter at the line this year, he hit 14-16 on Wednesday on his way to 16 points. However, the 6-foot-10 forward managed to pull down just two rebounds.

Thus, the two WVU twin towers that grabbed 24 rebounds between them against Tech in Morgantown combined for only six in Lubbock. Both Shannon (7) and Chris Clarke (6) were able to match that total by themselves as Tech won the rebounding battle 32-23 after losing that battle by 13 in Morgantown.

After blowing most of an 11-point lead in the final minute of the first half to head into the break ahead only 42-38, Tech built a 15-point lead by the 12:46 mark of the second half. But the Mountaineers continued to hit shots and get to the line to keep things interesting.

Fortunately, Tech was able to match the visitors almost shot-for-shot. What made the difference was that the Red Raiders were able to utilize the 3-pointer to their advantage, hitting 7-10 in the second half, while WVU made only four of 18 attempts all night.

The win pushed Tech into a tie with West Virginia and TCU for third place in the conference standings at 4-3. But more importantly, it gave Tech (13-7 overall this year) its second win over a top 25 team. In fact, prior to Wednesday, the only time Tech had beaten a major conference opponent with a winning record came in early December when the Red Raiders toppled then No. 1 Louisville in New York City.

Each year, the Selection Committee breaks teams wins into four quadrants to help them assess who should get bids to the NCAA Tournament. Quadrant 1 wins are those that come against teams in the top 30 of the NET rankings at home; teams in the top 50 at a neutral site and teams in the top 75 on the road and the carry the most weight when separating teams.

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West Virginia easily fit into the top 30 as they entered the game No. 7 in the NET. Prior to this game, Tech was just 1-6 in games that could have been quadrant-1 wins. That’s why many people had the Red Raiders on the bubble as January draws to a close. But after fighting, scratching, and shooting its way to a win over West Virginia on Wednesday, Chris Beard’s team took a major step towards returning to the Big Dance.

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