Playing the last-place team in the Big 12 on Wednesday night, the Texas Tech basketball team didn't let its guard down and fall into a trap after last Saturday's emotional and hard-fought win at Kansas. The Red Raiders never trailed and held a double-digit lead for the entirety of the second half en route to a 91-75 victory.
By moving to 23-7 overall and 14-5 in the Big 12, the Red Raiders secured a top-three seed in next week's conference tournament. That means that they will earn a double-bye into the tournament's quarterfinal round.
Fortunately, the Red Raiders didn't play down to the level of their competition in the home finale for 2024-25. Tech jumped out to an early 12-2 advantage and made 10 shots from the arc in the first half on the way to a 45-33 halftime edge.
In the second half, the Red Raiders kept the Buffaloes at bay for the entire 20 minutes. The smallest the Tech advantage would shrink to after halftime was 10 points on two occasions.
The second of those instances happened with 6:41 to go. Fortunately, Tech responded with a 3-pointer by Kerwin Walton and a traditional 3-point play by Christian Anderson to push the lead back to 16 points. After that, the outcome was academic.
Walton was particularly impactful on the night with 12 points on 4-8 shooting, all of which were 3-point attempts. Meanwhile, Anderson scored 12 points himself to lead the Red Raider bench players in scoring.
However, the star of the game was JT Toppin. The sophomore forward posted 30 points and pulled down 14 rebounds. It was his third game this year with at least 30 points, and all three came in Big 12 play.
Toppin was one of five Red Raiders to score in double figures. Meanwhile, the offensively challenged Buffaloes, who were playing without their leading scorer, Julian Hammond III, had no player score over 12 points.
Texas Tech now faces one final regular-season conference game Saturday night against Arizona State in Tempe, Arizona. If Tech can pull out that victory, they will have 15 wins in conference play, the most the program has ever had as a member of the Big 12.
What's more, the Red Raiders are playing their way into contention to potentially be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Should that come to fruition, it would be the highest seed the program has ever earned.
Beating a bad Colorado team won't necessarily move the Red Raiders up on the seed line by itself, nor will beating Arizona State on Saturday. However, losing either of this week's games would almost certainly end Tech's hopes of being a No. 2 seed.
Thus, there is still more for the Red Raiders to play for before the postseason begins. Hopefully, they will take care of their business again on Saturday night the way they did against Colorado to close out the season's home slate.