Texas Tech basketball: Kevin Obanor leads Red Raiders to route of Iowa State
It turns out that all the Texas Tech basketball team needed was some rest and some adrenaline from its home crowd to put Saturday’s letdown against Kansas State in the past. After losing to the last-place Wildcats in one of the season’s most lifeless performances in their last game out, the Red Raiders responded with a resounding 72-60 victory over No. 15 Iowa State in Lubbock Tuesday night.
Outscoring the Cyclones by the count of 46-37 over the course of the second half, the Red Raiders turned what was a bare-knuckle brawl in the first half into a thorough beating after the intermission as the Red Raiders held a 20-point lead before inserting some bench pieces for garbage time. Here are three takeaways from the Red Raiders’ fourth win over a ranked team this season.
Obanor comes up big
For a guy who almost never seems to jump more than six inches off the court, Texas Tech forward Kevin Obanor sure is one heck of a rebounder. And on Tuesday, his ability to crash the boards was one factor that helped his team pull away in the second half.
Finishing the game with 15 points and a team-high 8 rebounds, the transfer from Oral Roberts grabbed five huge offensive rebounds, half of Tech’s total for the evening.
It was a new way for Obanor to impact the game. Typically this season, it has been the 3-point shot that has been his weapon of choice when he’s come up big.
But against ISU, he was 0-3 from deep on the night. Fortunately, those would be his only misses as he was 6-6 from 2-point range with most of those makes coming as a result of an offensive rebound.
Interestingly, ISU led Tech in the offensive rebounding category, 16-10, but the Cyclones couldn’t make Tech pay for giving up so many second-chances. Despite having six more offensive boards, ISU held just a 17-13 edge in second-chance points and that was not near enough of a difference for the visitors on Tuesday night. And the biggest reason Tech stayed close in that critical aspect of the game was the work of Obanor, who may be the best below-the-rim rebounder in the Big 12.
Second-half free-throw-shooting
For once, the worst shooting free-throw team in the Big 12 actually came up big at the line as Tech made 25 of 29 free-throws in the second half. That was surprising to see given that the Red Raiders were just 4 of 9 from the line in the first half.
Overall, Tech made 28 free throws while Iowa State shot only15 for the game (making nine). That’s the type of advantage a home team should try to establish every time out but, of course, you have to knock them down when the opportunity arises and that’s what Tech managed to do on Tuesday.
Another resume-building win
Big picture, this win gives the Red Raiders yet another resume-boosting victory. Though they were picked to finish last in the preseason Big 12 poll, the Cyclones have proven to be an extremely solid team this season having already beaten Tech, Texas, Xavier, Memphis, Iowa, Creighton, and Oregon State to warrant a top-15 ranking. Thus, Tuesday’s dismantling of the Cyclones is yet another huge feather in Tech’s cap.
The Red Raiders now have four wins that will be considered “Quadrant 1” wins. They have taken down Tennessee, Kansas, Baylor, and ISU, all of which were ranked in the top 15 nationally at the time.
What that means is that this team can spend the rest of the regular season playing for higher stakes than just simply earning an NCAA Tournament bid. Sure, the Red Raiders will have to string together some more victories to officially guarantee their name is called on Selection Sunday, but the reality is that they have put themselves in a position to play for seeding and not for mere inclusion in the Big Dance.
Right now, Tech is considered by most experts to be a No. 3 or No. 4 seed and that’s only going to go up if they continue to rack up impressive wins as they did on Tuesday. There still remains plenty of opportunities to secure notable wins this season and because of how Tech has managed to play against ranked teams thus far, every top-notch win that Mark Adams’ team collects from here on out could yield the Red Raiders some serious dividends when the bracket is revealed.