Texas Tech basketball's 3-point barrage buries Bethune-Cookman

Tuesday night, the Texas Tech basketball team opened up the 2024-25 season in a big way. Hitting 16 shots from beyond the arc to tie a school single-game record, the Red Raiders blew past Bethune-Cookman 94-61.

The game was close for most of the first half, though. In fact, Tech led just 33-28 with 3:52 left in the half.

But then, Devan Cambridge, Darrion Williams, and Chance McMillan hit a trio of unanswered 3-pointers to spark what would be a 17-0 run to end the half. After that, the game was never in doubt.

So let's go inside the box score for some quick observations on the Red Raiders' first victory of the season.

Kerwin Walton leads a Texas Tech 3-point assault

For the game, the Red Raiders hoisted 30 shots from beyond the arc. That was nearly half of the 63 field goal attempts they had as a team.

Kerwin Walton led the way going 7-12 from deep for a team-high 21 points. Meanwhile, McMillan was 4-7 from 3-point range on his way to 17 points.

It will be interesting to see if the Red Raiders rely that heavily on the deep ball all season. Shooting 30 3-pointers per game would be an incredibly high number and would put Tech near the top of the country in attempts. This team has some lethal outside shooters and that was on display in game one. However, the offense will likely need to diversify a bit to be at its best against better teams.

Texas Tech newcomer JT Toppin lives up to the hype

One great development was the Red Raider debut of New Mexico transfer JT Toppin. The 6-foot-9 sophomore was Tech's prized offseason addition and he lived up to the hype with 19 points, eight rebounds, and four blocks.

Toppin displayed tremendous touch around the rim, especially with his dominant left hand. His back-to-the-basket game was solid thanks to a jump hook that looks incredibly difficult to defend.

Toppin was Tech's tallest starter as 6-foot-11 forward Federiko Federiko came off of the bench in a move that was a bit surprising. Against a smaller Bethune-Cookman team that wasn't an issue but it will be interesting to see how head coach Grant McCasland deploys his troops against Big 12 teams with size.

Devan Cambridge returns after nearly a year away

One of the highlights of the night was seeing senior forward Devan Cambridge return to the court just 11 months after tearing his ACL last December. He finished the game with five points and seven rebounds.

At times, especially early, it appeared that the former Arizona State transfer was rusty and that the game was moving a bit fast for him. However, as he got acclimated, he started to play effective basketball.

The 6-foot-6 forward was 2-4 from the floor and 1-1 from beyond the arc, a development that was good to see because last year, he made only one 3-pointer in eight games played. In all, it was a positive just to see Cambridge on the court given that some originally feared he might not be ready to play until closer to the start of Big 12 play. Now it appears that he'll have plenty of time to ramp his game up before conference action begins.

Texas Tech shares the ball well despite not having a true point guard

Just prior to the game, we learned that the Red Raiders would be without their two true point guards, senior Elijah Hawkins and freshman Christian Anderson. Both were held out of action due to lower leg injuries.

Still, the Red Raiders played well on offense. In fact, Tech had 15 assists for the game on 36 made baskets. That's a more than acceptable rate of 41.6%.

Meanwhile, the Red Raiders turned the ball over 12 times with several of their giveaways coming in garbage time when the regular rotation players were out of the game. All things considered, the Red Raiders were excellent on offense despite not having a point guard. Thus, it should be exciting to see what this team looks like when it has all of its pieces available.