Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders obliterate Montana State
After a day of upsets kicked off the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, the Texas Tech basketball team must have been on high alert Friday when facing Montana State in the first round. Playing arguably their best game of the season, the Red Raiders obliterated the Bobcats 97-62 in San Diego never even flirting with the idea of being another victim of the madness that has already defined this year’s Big Dance.
The Bobcats would open the scoring to lead 2-0. After holding that lead for about ten seconds, they would never lead again. Tech answered with a 12-0 run and never looked back on the way to a 52-25 halftime edge.
It was a day of complete domination for Tech, which advances to the second round for the fourth-straight tournament. Overall, Tech shot a blistering 66.7% from the floor and a surprising 60% (12-20) from 3-point range. Meanwhile, Mark Adams’ team held a 34-26 edge on the glass and forced 16 MSU turnovers helping lead to the program’s largest NCAA Tournament victory of all time.
It was a balanced scoring effort for the No. 3 seed in the West Region. Both Terrence Shannon Jr. and Bryson Williams notched 20 points, the first time Tech has ever had a pair of 20-point scorers in an NCAA Tournament game.
Meanwhile, Tech’s three other starters, Kevin Obanor, Kevin McCullar Jr., and Adonis Arms also reached double-figures in scoring. And proving that it was Tech’s day, even seldomly used reserve Chibuzo Agbo managed to pour in eight points in mop-up duty while playing in his hometown.
It was important for the Red Raiders to get off to a strong start to keep the Bobcats from entertaining any thoughts of pulling the upset. And that’s what they did.
In the first half, the Red Raiders had runs of 12-0, 10-0, and 9-0 to bury the Bobcats. Meanwhile, they kept the No. 14 seeded underdogs in check by holding them to 8-25 shooting. To put that in perspective, Tech had one fewer missed shot in that half that MSU had made field goals.
One of the keys for the Red Raiders was that MSU’s two best players were relative non-factors. Dynamic 5-foot-8 point guard Xavier Bishop would finish the game with a team-high 12 points but only five of those came in the first half when Tech put this game out of reach. He was repeatedly bothered by the length of the Red Raider perimeter defenders and he would turn the ball over three times.
Meanwhile, the Big Sky Conference MVP, Jubrile Belo, mustered only five points and three boards after averaging 13 points and 6.8 boards for the season. Also his conference’s Defensive Player of the Year, he was equally silent on the defensive end as he had no blocked shots while constantly being schooled by Williams.
The Red Raiders’ leading scorer put on a show Friday. In addition to his usual craftiness in the post, he put on a 3-point shooting display going 4-5 from beyond the arc.
Likewise, Shannon had a hot hand from deep. Making 3 of 4 3-pointers on the game, Shannon’s three first-half long-range bombs helped push his team out to its early lead, one that it never relinquished.
It was refreshing to see Tech avoid being bitten by a Cinderella after six higher seeds were sent packing on Thursday. That included wins by four double-digit seeds.
On Friday though, the Red Raiders took care of business against a heavy underdog. And if they keep shooting it the way they did in round one, they could be one of the tournament’s most dangerous squads.