Texas Tech does a good job of checking Jaylin Sellers
For much of this season, opposing guards have been able to have big days against Texas Tech. However, on Saturday, the Red Raiders held in check one of the best guards in the Big 12.
UCF's Jaylin Sellers is a scoring machine. He averages 17 points per game and shoots the ball at a 42.3% clip. That's why many Red Raider fans were concerned about how the Red Raiders would fare against the 6-foot-4 shooting guard.
Remember, already this year, Butler's Jahmyl Telfort has put up 26 on the Red Raiders as did Oral Roberts' Jailen Bedford. Meanwhile, Texas' Tyrese Hunter scored 20, Houston's Jamal Shead scored 29, and TCU's Trevian Tennyson scored 23 against the Red Raider defense. Thus, UCF's star might have been licking his chop coming into Saturday.
Sellers is a player to fear. He had 34 points in a game earlier this year and has hit or topped the 20-point mark six times.
On Saturday, though, he managed only 14 points. But what's more important is the fact that he shot only 38.5% from the field, the 8th-worst shooting day of his season thus far. By making Sellers inefficient (he was only 5-13 from the field), Tech put the clamps on a bad UCF offense, one which needs Sellers to be elite to pull an upset.
This wasn't a shutdown defensive performance. That's what Houston did to Sellers a few games ago when he was held to just five points on 0-7 shooting.
Still, Tech did not let Sellers take over the game. What's more, he was a -14 for the day (meaning when he was on the floor, UCF was outscored by 14 points). That's the type of defensive effort the Red Raiders have been looking for against elite guards all season.