On the day after Thanksgiving, there was no turkey and dressing hangover for the Texas Tech basketball team. Thanks to 21 points from Darrion Williams and 20 points from Kevin Overton, the Red Raiders had no issue beating a Northern Colorado team that earlier this year took Big 12 member Colorado to double-overtime.
In the 89-64 win, the Red Raiders were a bit sluggish coming out of the locker room trailing 8-3 early. However, a big first half from Overton helped put the Red Raiders in command. Despite a bit of a cold start from the floor, Tech recovered to shoot 62% as a team in the first half to take a dominating 50-29 lead at the break. After that, the game was essentially a glorified scrimmage with the Red Raiders never threatened in the second half.
Here are some quick thoughts on what took place Friday at United Supermarkets Arena.
Overton plays his best game for Texas Tech
It's been an up-and-down year for Drake transfer Kevin Overton. But on Friday, the sophomore had his best game as a Red Raider.
Making 7-11 shots for the game, he managed to shoot 63.6% from the floor. What's more, he was 4-6 from 3-point range (66.7%), the best the lefty has shot from beyond the arc thus far in 2024-25.
A key contributor off of the Red Raider bench, Overton has been all or nothing thus far. In the four games in which he's scored in double figures, he's averaged 16.5 points per game. But in the three games in which he hasn't hit double figures, he's averaged 4.3 points.
Against Saint Joseph's, a game that the Red Raiders lost by one point, Overton went scoreless in 18 minutes of action. That night, he was 0-4 from the floor and he committed four fouls.
Tech needs the version of Overton that we saw on Friday night. He's got to become a player that head coach Grant McCasland can count on to bring offense into the game off of the bench and he did that in a big way against Northern Colorado.
JT Toppin has a quiet double-double
Fellow sophomore JT Toppin had his fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and 15 rebounds. It was one of the more quiet performances of his season, though.
Toppin was only 3-11 from the floor in the game. However, he did a good job of getting to the free-throw line where he was 5-6.
One has to wonder if opposing teams are starting to focus on trying to make life more difficult for Toppin. In his last two games, he's scored 11 and 15 points respectively. What's more, he's just 8-27 from the floor in his last two outings.
While those totals are nothing to be upset about, they are a far cry from what he was doing prior to the last two games when he had 19 or more points in four of the first five games. It will be interesting to see how he performs in the next two games (against DePaul and Texas A&M) when he faces teams from major conferences. Will he be the star that he's been for most of this season or will he continue to struggle from the field as he draws more attention from opposing teams?
Texas Tech defends the 3-point shot well again
This year, the Red Raiders have struggled to defend the 3-point line at times. That was especially problematic against Saint Joseph's when the Hawks were 12-22 (54.5%).
Since that game, though, the Red Raiders have allowed teams to shoot just 12-44 (27.2%) from deep. Friday, the Bears of Northern Colorado were just 6-23 in that aspect of the game.
Meanwhile, the Red Raiders got back to shooting the ball well from deep. Making 13-23 shots (56.5%) from deep, the home team was red-hot from 3-point range.
Like Overton, freshman guard Christian Anderson was 4-6 from deep. For the season, he's shooting 35.3% from deep as he continues to impress early in his career.
Meanwhile, Williams was 3-5 from deep as the third Red Raider to make at least three shots from beyond the arc. When Tech shoots that well from long distance, the Red Raiders are tough to handle.