When the Texas Tech basketball team took down the Oklahoma Sooners on Tuesday night in Norman, these hidden moments proved to be important.
Don’t take for granted how important the Texas Tech basketball program’s victory over Oklahoma was on Tuesday night. In fact, the 69-67 win was so important to Chris Beard and his staff that they treated it as a must-win.
"“Obviously, it’s only the second Big 12 [game],” Beard said, “but we kinda took a gamble internally and put it out there that this is a game we gotta try to find a way to win.”"
Making a run towards a Big 12 regular-season title is Tech’s goal this season. While that would not have been impossible had the Red Raiders dropped the game to the Sooners, it would have become far more unlikely.
So let’s go inside a win that might prove to be rather pivotal as the year unfolds and take a look at four key hidden moments that would ultimately prove to be more than just a bit significant.
Shannon’s 4-point play
Oklahoma only led this game for 27 seconds. That came early in the first half when the Sooners hit back-to-back shots to take a 4-2 lead.
But our first hidden moment put OU behind for the remainder of the evening and got Tech’s second-leading scorer off to a hot start.
With 18:11 to play in the half, Terrence Shannon Jr. drained a deep 3-pointer from the top of the key. And on the play, he was needlessly bumped into by OU’s Alondes Williams giving Shannon a 4-point play opportunity, which he converted to put his team ahead for good at 6-4.
While this play didn’t necessarily stand out when it happened, it was significant. That’s because it got Shannon off to another confident start.
Suddenly, the sophomore has become this team’s second-best offensive weapon behind Mac McClung and it has become imperative that he be a scoring option to help carry the load for a team that is still not quite firing on all cylinders on that end of the floor.
Most specifically, it was important for Shannon to be a viable 3-point shooter for the second-straight game. Making 2 of 4 shots from beyond 3-point range against OU, he accounted for half of Tech’s makes from deep one game after he hit a career-best 4 long-range shots on seven attempts against Kansas.
All of a sudden, Shannon has become this team’s best 3-point shooter. He’s hit 40% of his attempts on the year while averaging one 3-pointer per game. While those numbers don’t lead the team, he’s second of any player in the rotation in percentage behind Jamarius Burton and he’s third in makes per game behind Kyler Edwards and Mac McClung and given that the latter of those two players are in prolonged 3-point slumps, Shannon is currently the team’s top 3-point weapon.
So seeing him hit another shot from distance early on Tuesday was important and the fact that it proved to be a 4-point play was a bonus. That moment was the springboard to a 21-point night, Shannon’s second-straight 20-point effort.