Texas Tech football: Red Raiders trounce Oklahoma in Lubbock

Tuesday night in Lubbock, the Texas Tech basketball team made a dominant statement about being ready for postseason play as March nears.  In the meantime, the Red Raiders also may have severed any hopes Oklahoma may have about playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Turning what was a seven-point halftime lead into a 66-42 route by holding the Sooners to just 20 points in the second half, the Red Raiders made up for the inexplicable 70-55 loss that they suffered in Norman earlier this month.  And by doing so, they also stayed in second place in the Big 12 regular-season standings while dropping OU to 14-14 overall and 4-11 in Big 12 play, numbers that likely have the Sooners on the outside of the NCAA Tournament picture looking in.

Fortunately for fans in scarlet and black, Tech appears to be firing on all cylinders as the regular season winds down.  With just three games left to play before next month’s Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, the Red Raiders have won seven of their last eight games (the only loss being the afore-mentioned stumble in Norman) a run that is reminiscent of 2019’s nine-game winning streak to close that regular season.  Of course, that team would eventually reach the National Title Game.  Now, the way Tech is playing in 2022, Red Raider fans are dreaming of a similar run.

Davion Warren broke out of a mini-slump to lead Tech with 16 points.  In his previous two games, he had scored just five points total while hitting only one of twelve shots from the field.  On Tuesday though, he made seven of nine field goals to score his most points since scoring 19 points against Grambling in the second game of the season back in November.

Meanwhile, Bryson Williams was his usual reliant self.  Scoring 13 points, he was an efficient 6-9 from the field as the only other Red Raider to score in double-digits.

But at halftime, this game was far from the laugher that it would eventually turn into.  Committing seven turnovers and shooting just 2-11 from 3-point range in the opening 20 minutes, Tech allowed OU to hang around despite the Sooners shooting only 36% from the field.

The second half was a different story though, at least for the home team.  Tech would open on a 10-0 run and would later tack on a 15-0 run to turn this game into a blowout that would see the Sooners only crack the 40-point mark on the last shot of the game.

It was arguably the Red Raiders’ best 20 minutes of basketball this year and perhaps the best the program has seen since that famous 2019 season.  The Red Raiders would shoot 69.6% from the field while holding OU to only eight field goals, four of which came in the final 4:13 of the game after Tech had pushed the lead to 64-34.

Tech returns to the floor on Saturday at TCU with another opportunity to send a message to the pollsters and the selection committee.  And given how well this team is playing, the messages it is sending are starting to be of the most resounding of fashions.