JT Toppin's big game powers Texas Tech to dominating win over Wyoming

Wednesday night, the Texas Tech basketball team rolled to its third win to open the 2024-25 season by thumping Wyoming 96-49 in Lubbock. Let's go inside to box score to see how head coach Grant McCasland's team put together its latest blowout victory.

Texas Tech's leading scorer has a big game while Wyoming's didn't

Perhaps the biggest story of the game was the difference in what each team's leading scorer managed to put forth. That's where the Red Raiders had a huge edge.

Texas Tech sophomore JT Toppin was fantastic with 24 points and 12 rebounds to record his 13th career double-double. The New Mexico transfer was 10-15 from the floor as he topped the 20-point mark for the second-straight game following a 25-point showing against Northwestern State in his last game.

Meanwhile, Wyoming's top offensive weapon, Obi Agbim, wasn't as impactful. Coming into the game, the senior guard was averaging 24.5 points per game and shooting 77.8% from 3-point range.

The Red Raiders paid plenty of attention to Agbim though and limited him to 15 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists. He would end the night 7-12 from the floor but 0-2 from beyond the arc. In the first two games of the season, he had made at least three shots from deep but Tech didn't let him get hot on Wednesday night.

Texas Tech sees both of its point guards make their Red Raider debuts

After missing the first two games of the season, point guards Elijah Hawkins and Christian Anderson both made their Red Raider debuts against Wyoming. Each was impressive, to say the least.

Hawkins, the highly-touted senior transfer from Minnesota lived up to his reputation as a great distributor of the basketball. Playing limited minutes off of the bench, he dished out 5 assists to go along with 7 points. Last year, he averaged over 7 assists per game for the Golden Gophers and it was easy to see why in his Texas Tech debut.

Meanwhile, Anderson, a true freshman from Atlanta, Georgia was far from timid in his collegiate debut. Going 4-7 from the field, he had 9 points and handed out 4 assists while coming up with 3 steals.

The presence of these two guards was a key factor in Tech's defensive effort. Not only was each excellent when guarding the basketball in the half court, but their presence allowed McCasland to rotate nine players into the game for most of the night which meant that Tech had the energy to play with more intensity on the defensive end of the floor.

As a result, the Cowboys committed a whopping 25 turnovers and shot only 34% from the field. That type of defensive effort is what McCasland has been expecting to see from his team this season.

Texas Tech is efficient from 3-point range

All season, it will be worth monitoring how the Red Raiders shoot the basketball from 3-point range. That's because this team's offensive philosophy seems deeply rooted in spreading the floor with shooters who can draw defenders away from the paint where Toppin likes to operate.

Though Tech didn't make 16 shots from beyond the arc as was the case in the opener, the Red Raiders were 10-18 from deep against Wyoming. That was nice to see after they shot just 6-19 on Friday night against Northwestern State.

Leading the way was Chance McMillan who was 4-4 from deep and 6-7 overall on his way to 16 points. What's more, senior forward Devan Cambridge was 2-2 from 3-point range as he continues to show better touch from deep than he did last year. So far this season, he is 4-5 from downtown after making only 1 of the 11 3-pointers he tried in the eight games he played in 2023-24.

Interestingly, Tech's best shooter, Kerwin Walton, was only 1-4 overall and 1-2 from long distance. Even without the senior being a huge factor from 3-point range, Tech was still impressive in that aspect of the game proving that this team is more than capable of being deadly from beyond the arc, even if Walton's productivity is limited.