Texas Tech basketball: Hidden turning points in Red Raiders’ victory over WVU
Tech receives 3s from Holyfield and Shannon in just over a minute
If there was a knockout blow in this game, it came when the Red Raiders got a pair of 3-pointers from two unexpected sources, T.J. Holyfield and Terrence Shannon Jr. in the span of about a minute. They were the ninth and tenth of the eleven shots from deep the home team would make on the evening and they staked Tech to a 73-60 lead with under ten minutes to play.
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The first came from Holyfield. But the play was really made by Chris Clarke, who shoveled a short pass to Holyfield on the wing for the assist. After passing the ball, Clarke walled off his defender to keep him from contesting Holyfield’s shot.
Being as his man did not respect his ability to hit a deep jumper, Holyfield was left wide open and he confidently drained the 3. It was just his sixth make from behind the arc this year in 23 attempts and it was his first triple since he made a pair in the first Big 12 game of the year against Oklahoma State.
About a minute later, Shannon hit his own deep shot from the corner off a pass from Clarke. When it went through the net, his defender (Gabe Osabuohien) threw his hands up in disgust as if to indicate he couldn’t believe that even the players WVU thought were not going to hit deep shots were knocking them down on Wednesday.
Shannon’s make was just his sixth in 27 tries on the year. He hadn’t made a 3-pointer since draining a pair on December 4th back in his hometown of Chicago against DePaul.
Next. How Tech beat West Virginia. dark
Though these shots came in the middle of the second half and were not dramatic in their timing or their nature, consider how important two bonus 3-pointers wound up being in an eight-point win. These unlikely buckets came in a stretch when Tech and WVU were trading buckets and they were critical in helping the Red Raiders keep the Mountaineers at arm’s length for the vast majority of the second half.