Texas Tech basketball: Unsung heroes from win over the Horns

Chibuzo Agbo

Following the game, Beard embraced one of his players and held that player’s hand up high like a referee signaling the winner of a prizefight.  But it wasn’t Mac McClung (who led the team in scoring with 16 points) nor was it Marcus Santos-Silva (who had 10 points and 9 rebounds).  Rather, the player Beard seemed most pleased with was true freshman Chibuzo Agbo.

The San Diego native’s final stat line didn’t garner many accolades.  He scored just four points and had no rebounds or assists (though he did have a block to his name) while playing only three minutes overall.

But what made Beard so pleased with Agbo was the timing of his third and fourth points of the game.  In fact, it could be argued that those two points were the two most critical of the day.

When Agbo toed the line with 47 seconds left to play, the game was still up for grabs.  Tech led just 63-59 and given the way that the Horns are capable of shooting the ball from 3-point range, that size of an advantage was far from insurmountable.

So the fact that Agbo calmly drained both free throws with high-arcing shots that seemed to scrape the rafters was beyond massive.  Putting Tech up by a margin that couldn’t be overcome in two possessions (unless there was the rare 4-point play) was the most impactful moment of Agbo’s season thus far and one of the most important moments of Tech’s season as well.

"“Coming in the game, he was ready when his name was called, and he played the game really well, all the way down to those pressure free throws,” Beard said after the win."

For the game, Tech was a +8 when Agbo was on the court, and the four points he scored on Saturday were his most in a game since the season opener when he tallied five points.  And given how timely and how impactful his final two points were, he has to be considered one of the game’s unsung heroes.