While Grant McCasland and the Texas Tech Red Raiders no longer have JT Toppin to help lead them this season, that doesn’t mean that the No. 16 ranked team in the country is incapable of going out and beating up on conference opponents.
The Red Raiders, in their second game without Toppin leading things, managed to take care of business against the Cincinnati Bearcats and their smothering defense. Unsurprisingly, Christian Anderson took over this game in its entirety and scorched the Bearcats as he put up 31 points and a career high 11 rebounds to go with seven assists.
Texas Tech, at 21-7 overall and 11-4 in the Big 12, is currently in a four-way tie for No. 2 spot in the Big 12 standings. Oh! And the Red Raiders are now 2-0 since JT Toppin’s season-ending injury. So, the Red Raiders clearly haven’t given up yet.
And that’s encouraging. Especially when you consider that Texas Tech was able to beat up on a Cincinnati team that absolutely crushed Kansas and came into Lubbock with a four game winning streak as they looked to beat the Red Raiders as well.
No. 16 Texas Tech Red Raiders outlast Cincinnati’s impressive start to secure 12-point win and snap the Bearcats’ winning streak
While for much of this season, Cincinnati was keeping opponents from doing much damage from behind the three point line, Texas Tech didn’t have much of an issue in scoring in this game (and that includes from deep) as the Red Raiders made 40 percent of their attempted threes.
Overall, Texas Tech just flat out shot well as well, making a really solid 51.9 percent of its shots against the Bearcats.
And we absolutely can’t forget to talk about how Texas Tech took complete and total control of the rebounding battle. The Red Raiders managed to grab 40 rebounds and then allowed just 24 rebounds to Cincinnati.
All in all, Texas Tech has a lot to be proud of in this game. The Red Raiders accounted for all of the Bearcats strengths and are now heading into a matchup with No. 4 Iowa State on Saturday riding a bit of momentum.