About 30 minutes before the Texas Tech basketball team tipped off against Lamar on Saturday in Lubbock, the program announced that its two primary big men, JT Toppin and Federiko Federiko would be unavailable to play in the non-conference finale. However, that didn't prevent the Red Raiders from putting together one of their most complete efforts of the season in a 101-57 cakewalk to head into a nine-day layoff before opening conference play on New Year's Eve.
Tech had five players reach double figures in scoring on the way to the season's highest offensive output. Meanwhile, the Cardinals shot just 32.9% from the floor and 30% from 3-point range as their five-game winning streak came to a crashing halt.
It was an impressive showing from Texas Tech. Sure, the Cardinals are not a great team but for the Red Raiders to thoroughly dominate any team when missing their two primary post players and with the Christmas break looming is a sign that head coach Grant McCasland had his team locked in.
So let's go inside the box score for some important takeaways And we'll start by looking at a big game from an unexpected starter.
Texas Tech gets a career day from sophomore Eemeli Yalaho
With Toppin and Federiko out, Tech turned to 6-foot-8 sophomore forward Eemeli Yalaho to make his first collegiate start. The native of Finland responded in a big way with a career-high 13 points to go along with five rebounds, an assist, and a steal.
Prior to this game, Yalaho's career-high in scoring was 10 points, a number he hit last season. On Saturday, he was composed and confident on both ends of the floor as he filled in admirably against a Lamar team that featured two players 6-foot-10 or taller.
Late last season, Yalaho was asked to play key minutes in Big 12 play when Tech lost starting center Warren Washington for about a month with a foot injury. With that opportunity, he started to grow as a player, and on Saturday, that growth continued with his first career start.
Tech certainly needs Toppin to recover from the knee injury that has caused him to miss the last four games and Federiko to get over the shoulder injury that kept him out against Lamar because winning in the Big 12 will be next to impossible without them. But at least on Saturday, Yalaho filled in admirably and showed that perhaps he's ready for an expanded role moving forward.
Texas Tech holds Lamar's best player well below his season average
Lamar's Alexis Marmolejos entered the day averaging 16.3 points per game. The junior guard leads the Cardinals in scoring and is a deadly 3-point shooter at 41.% on the season.
However, against the Red Raiders, he struggled. Scoreless until the second half when the game was already out of hand, Marmolejos put up just 11 points and was an inefficient 3-11 from the floor.
For all the talk of Tech's struggles this year in regard to stopping the basketball and checking opposing guards, the Red Raiders did a masterful job on this dangerous Cardinal on Saturday. Hopefully, that is a sign that this team is beginning to understand how to play defense on the perimeter the way McCasland wants it to.
Christian Anderson has a big game off of the bench for Texas Tech
Darrion Williams led Tech in scoring with 23 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists. However, that's almost what we've come to expect from Tech's best all-around player.
Meanwhile, Chance McMillan was excellent as well with 19 points and six rebounds. It was his fourth straight solid effort as the senior has clearly established himself as the team's best guard.
However, what we didn't foresee was a career day from true freshman guard Christian Anderson. Going 8-10 from the floor, the Georgia native scored 20 points and grabed five rebounds off the bench. That was key on a day when Tech was missing over 25 points from the lineup with Toppin and Federiko both sidelined.
Some believe that Anderson should be inserted into the starting lineup in place of senior Elijah Hawkins who had only seven points on 2-9 shooting (though he did lead the team with seven assists). However, Anderson seems comfortable in his role as a bench weapon for now and he will likley face a steep learning curve in Big 12 play so thrusting him into a larger role might not be wise at the moment.
However, there is no doubt that Anderson is the point guard of the future and he showed why on Saturday. Here's hoping he can carry this momentum into conference action because Tech will need his scoring touch off the bench.
What has happened to Kerwin Walton?
Finally, let's take a moment to look at a starter who is struggling mightily, Kerwin Walton. Despite the fact that his team scored 101 points, he hardly got in on the act on Saturday posting just two points on 1-3 shooting. It was the continuation of a stretch that has seen him give this team absolutely nothing in recent weeks.
Though he is still starting and playing significant minutes, Walton is not impacting games for the Red Raiders. He has scored more than three points only once in the last six games. That comes after he opened the season scoring eight or more points in four of the first five contests.
Additionally, Walton has stopped doing what he does best, shoot 3-pointers. In his last five games, he's attempted more than two 3s in a game just once (he was 2-7 against Oral Roberts on Monday night).
If Walton isn't going to be able to get open for looks from downtown and then knock those looks down, then what good is he to this team? He isn't a good defender, he doesn't create offense for his teammates off the dribble, he doesn't rebound well, nor does he come up with a lot of steals.
It looks like Walton is just content to be a passenger right now and Tech is getting away with it due to the caliber of opponents the Red Raiders have seen for the most part. However, once Toppin returns to the staring five, Walton will likely head to the bench and then it will be interesting to see how his role changes for this team given that he's not contributing in any measurable way.