Texas Tech basketball classics: Unranked Red Raiders topple No. 3 OU in 2016

OU couldn’t find the range from 3

That season, OU was the best 3-point shooting team in the nation, entering the game at 44.1% as a team.  But even the best shooting teams have nights when there simply seems to be a lid on the bucket and that was the case in Lubbock for the Sooners.

Shooting just 6-23 from deep, they hit at just a 26.1% clip.  When that happened, it seemed as if they couldn’t adjust their offensive game.

Four players on the OU team ended the year shooting better than 40% from behind the arc.  But that night on the South Plains, Hield and Jordan Woodward were the only Sooners to find the range even once from deep.

Combined, they were 6-17.  Their teammates went 0-6.

Meanwhile, Tech was 7-19 from distance.  At 36.8%, they outshoot their eventual season average of just over 34%.

In a game decided by just two points, it was massive for Tech to have a 3-point edge from downtown.  And Tech’s 3s seemed to be rather timely throughout the game.

You had to know it was Tech’s night when 6-foot-10 forward Matt Temple hit a desperation three to beat the shot clock in the second half.  It was just his third three-pointer ever as a Red Raider.

Including that shot, three of the four 3-pointers Tech made in the second half gave the Red Raiders the lead.  The other, one by Gotcher in the last two minutes, pulled the home team to within 61-60 and set the stage for Evans’ heroics.

You could say that Tech was fortunate in the sense that OU was just off that night.  While that’s true, you do have to credit the intense Red Raider defense as OU had very few wide-open looks from deep.  And the Sooners learned that when you live by the 3, you will eventually die by the 3.