Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders hold off OU for key Big 12 win

In a game that was up for grabs in the final minute, the Texas Tech basketball team pulled out a 69-61 victory over Oklahoma Tuesday night in Lubbock.

For most Tuesday night, the Oklahoma Sooners took the fight to the Texas Tech basketball team. But in a turn of events from what we’ve seen in previous close games this year, the Red Raiders made the key plays down the stretch to pull out a 69-61 win in Lubbock to move to 14-8 overall and 5-4 in Big 12 play.

The win pushed the Red Raiders a game ahead of the Sooners in the crowded middle tier of the conference race and was a nice resume-boosting win. Additionally, by securing a victory at home over the No. 49 team in the NET rankings, the Red Raiders added another Quadrant 2 win to their tournament resume.

Continuing his strong play of late, senior forward T.J. Holyfield led all players with 21 points. Three other Texas Tech starters were able to crack double-digits on the scoreboard with Kyler Edwards providing 17, Jahmi’us Ramsey 13, and Davide Moretti 11.

Meanwhile, two hot-shooting Sooners nearly carried the visitors to the win. Hitting 8-14 shots (but only 1-6 from deep), forward Bradey Manek (the Big 12’s Larry Bird doppelganger) led his team with 19 points while Wichita State transfer Austin Reaves scored 16 points thanks in large part to hitting 3-7 from behind the arc. However, no other Sooner topped nine points.

It was a sluggish performance for most of the night for Chris Beard’s team. In a game that was within a couple of possessions for virtually all 40 minutes, OU led 31-30 at the break. But it could have been more.

A team that has struggled all season to close out the last minute of the first half, the Red Raiders actually made up some ground in the final two possessions of the first 20 minutes on Tuesday when freshman Kevin McCullar made a rare 3-pointer and they were able to get the subsequent stop top finally head into the locker room with a touch of momentum.

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But coming out of the break, the Sooners took a 41-36 lead at the under-16:00 timeout. For the rest of the game, the two teams would trade shots with the lead changing hands nine times until it was tied at 51-51 with 9:05 remaining.

When the game was on the line, it was some of the Red Raiders’ most experienced leaders that came to the rescue. A Moretti 3-pointer put his team up 60-56 with 3:37 to play. It was the first time Tech had held more than a one-possession lead since leading 11-7.

After a Holyfield steal on the other end of the floor, Edwards converted a layup on which he drew a foul. Though he missed the ensuing free throw, he was able to give his team some critical breathing room.

Reaves would then hit a layup and Moretti answered with a pair of free throws when Holyfield put the nail in the coffin. With Tech leading 64-61, he calmly nailed a jumper from just inside the free-throw line to push the lead to 66-61 and essentially end the OU threat.

Tech ran its winning streak over the Sooners to four games and prevented the boys from Norman from securing a win in the Hub City for the first time since 2015. It was an ugly win in many ways and if it had come in the NCAA Tournament, we would be saying that Tech found a way to “survive and advance”.

Though the only game Tech will advance to after this one will be Saturday’s test in Austin, this was a victory that could ultimately help the Red Raiders advance to the NCAA Tournament. While we called last week’s home win against West Virginia a virtual must-win, this game was nearly as close to being one as well.

Holding serve at home in February is critical for every team, especially those that have postseason aspirations. In the end, Tech fought through a lackluster effort on defense and managed to put another Big 12 game on the positive side of the ledger. However, if this year’s team is going to have another strong final month of the regular season, as was the case last year, it had better play with more intensity and urgency than it did for a huge portion of Tuesday’s close call.

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