Texas Tech basketball: Takeaways from Tuesday’s win over Texas

Tuesday night, the Texas Tech basketball program made another statement on the basketball court.  All off-court drama aside, the Red Raiders’ 77-64 win over the Longhorns was critically important from just a basketball perspective.

After all, the two teams entered the game tied in the Big 12 standings at 5-3.  What’s more, Texas had been playing its best basketball coming into the game.

Having won three games in a row prior to Tuesday, including their first win of the season over a ranked team on Saturday in No. 18 Tennessee, it appeared as if the Horns had found their stride just in time to face the Red Raiders.  But the Red Raiders would prove to be more of a step up in competition than the Horns could handle.

So let’s go inside the stat sheet for some takeaways from last night’s epic Red Raider victory.  And we begin with what happened at the line.

Tech dominated at the free-throw line

Getting to the free-throw line is an essential component of the Texas Tech offense as the Red Raiders lead the Big 12 in free throw attempts.  And on Tuesday night, the Red Raiders managed to make more free throws (21) than Texas attempted (19).

In all, the Red Raiders had eleven more attempts and seven more points at the line than the Horns.  While that number didn’t represent the entire final margin of victory, it was indicative of how the two teams played.

Tech was by far the more aggressive team and it showed in how many loose balls and hustle plays that went the way of the home team.  And that aggression paid dividends at the free-throw line.

What’s more, in the second half, as Tech was trying to protect its lead and hold off a spirited Texas comeback attempt, the Red Raiders were 13-17 (76.4%) at the line.  And leading the way was Kevin McCullar Jr. who was 12-15 at the line on his way to a team-high 19 points.

Entering the game, Texas was allowing just 66.6 points per game on the road this year as the Horns have played some solid defense in 2021-22.  Thus, getting to the line was always going to be critical on Tuesday since points were always going to be at a premium.  And by absolutely dominating that facet of the game, Tech gave itself a huge leg up.

Tech held an edge in 3-point shooting

Texas Tech isn’t a huge 3-point shooting team.  In fact, only three teams in the Big 12 have made fewer shots from beyond the arc this season than Tech’s 144.

Interestingly though, Texas has made just 146 3-pointers on the season despite having three guards in Andrew Jones, Courtney Ramey, and Jace Febres, who can all knock shots from deep at a high rate.  And it felt like if the offensively-challenged Longhorns were going to score enough points to win on Tuesday, they were going to have to have a couple of players get hot from deep.

In the end, that didn’t happen, despite the fact that Ramey was 4-4 from long distance in the first half.  Despite that fact, Tech would end up with an edge in 3-point shooting going 8-19 (42.1%) while Texas would make just 6-23 (23.1%).

Importantly, in the second half, Ramey did not make a single 3-pointer as he would finish the game 4-10 from deep.  That was a huge reason why his team went only 1-7 from 3-point range in the second half.

Meanwhile, Tech was led by Kevin Obanor, who was 5-7 from deep on the night.  That would prove to give the Red Raiders a huge boost on a night when it seemed like every point was tough to come by.

Allen held in check

While Texas Tech got 16 big points from their leading scorer, Bryson Williams, the Longhorns got just five points from their leading scorer, Timmy Allen.  That was a big reason why the Red Raiders were able to come out on top.

The 6-foot-6 senior is a transfer from Utah who was a first-team All-PAC 12 honoree last season.  Coming into Tuesday, he had been averaging 11.7 points per game and had 15 double-figure scoring efforts.

But Tech was able to keep Allen from ever getting into a rhythm.  In fact, he only took six shots on the evening, making just two.

It was the second-lowest point total of Allen’s season and his lowest in a Big 12 game.  Thus, the job the Red Raiders did on UT’s leading scorer was impressive and it was a huge reason the Red Raiders scored what was a program-defining victory.