Red Raider Recap: #8 Tech 72, #2 West Virginia 71

Saturday, January 13

United Supermarkets Arena

1:00 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

15-2 (4-1B12)

No. 2 West Virginia

15-2 (4-1B12)

No. 2 West Virginia

Texas Tech

Red Raider Recap: #8 Tech 72, #2 West Virginia 71

January 13, 2018 | Men's Basketball

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LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 8 Texas Tech men's basketball team overcame an 11-point deficit over the last 13 minutes to claim a 72-71 victory versus No. 2 West Virginia during the program's first Top 10 home matchup in-front of sold out crowd of 15,098 at the United Supermarkets Arena.

The Red Raiders (15-2, 4-1 Big 12) snapped the nation's longest winning streak at 15 games by the Mountaineers (15-2, 4-1 Big 12). The victory also enabled Texas Tech to move into a four-way tie for first place with Kansas, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

"The first thing I'd like to say, and I speak for everybody in our program including our players, is we're just really appreciative of the crowd," Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. "I think that's one of the best crowds in Texas Tech basketball history. Why do I say that? Because our students aren't here. First, I want to thank the students that were here. Classes don't start for a couple days, but it's very apparent to us that we had students come back to Lubbock early to come to this basketball game so that means the world to us. Our student attendance is top of our list in priorities as we build the program. Again, I just want to thank Lubbock for coming. I did an ESPN deal to wrap the game. The announcers were like kind of surprised, and I was like this isn't a surprise for any of us here. Lubbock supports a winner. Our guys have worked really hard to have a winning program so tonight's attendance was just fantastic. I just really appreciate and want to thank everybody.

Rankings wise, the Red Raiders matched the best win in program history as Texas Tech defeated then No. 2 SMU 64-63 on Jan. 26, 1985 under Gerald Myers.

The Red Raiders have emerged with a program single-season mark and a nation's best five Top 25 victories on the season. Texas Tech has secured victories in eight of their last home nine games against Top 25 foes sparked by four wins over Top 10 opponents.

Keenan Evans piled up a team-leading 20 points coupled with five rebounds and two assists. The Red Raiders have won 11 of 15 games when Evans reaches the 20-point mark. He was 6-of-10 from the floor and rattled home 8-of-9 at the free throw line.

Brandone Francis provided a spark off the bench and poured in 10 of his career-high 17 points during the second half. He was an efficient 5-of-6 shooting ignited by a trio of three-pointers in addition to a flawless 4-of-4 mark on foul shots. For Francis, his previous career-high was a 10-point outing against Savannah State on Nov. 25 earlier this season and a 10-point game versus North Carolina A&T on Nov. 16, 2015 when played at Florida.

"We spent a lot of time with Brandone lately just talking to him about being ready for the moment," Beard said. "Brandone and I had a kind of up-and-down relationship last year, but to his credit, he's the guy that chose to change his life. He's more disciplined, on and off the court, so he deserves these moments. There's nothing I did for him. He chose to do the right thing and grow up. He's a man. He's got great support at home with his mom and dad, but I've been spending time with Brandone. I thought early in the year he did a great job with his energy off the bench. With limited minutes, he was still enthusiastic. He was really kind of the leader of our team in a lot of ways. Here lately, I've been saying okay now can you keep being passionate, can you keep being a team player. Maybe as your minutes and your role expands, I thought tonight he answered the call. You know there's a lot of players around the country that work really hard, but there's only a few that can be ready when your number's called. I thought Brandone did that tonight."

Zhaire Smith battled for nine points, eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals. Justin Gray and Niem Stevenson chipped in six points apiece, while Norense Odiase tacked on five points and four rebounds.

Jarrett Culver and Davide Moretti came away with four points and three points, respectively. Texas Tech controlled the interior with a 28-14 edge in paint points and corralled a 26-20 advantage in bench points.

As a team, Texas Tech produced a 22-for-44 shooting effort highlighted by a 14-for-24 clip during the second half. The Red Raiders were 4-for-15 on three-pointers and knocked down 24-for-28 at the charity stripe. The 85.7 free throw percentage was the fourth-best for the Red Raiders under Beard.

West Virginia was 23-of-59 from the field and buried 11-of-28 from beyond the three-point line. The Mountaineers hit on 14-of-19 on free throws and became the first Big 12 opponent to outrebound Texas Tech with a 31-27 edge.

Jevon Carter erupted for 28 points aided by five treys and added three steals. He turned in a 10-for-22 shooting performance and was one-point shy of his career-high. Esa Ahmad racked up 18 points and six rebounds in his season debut.

"Let's start with Carter," Beard said. "He's one of the best players in the Big 12. I think he's a player that will play in the NBA and be a point guard spot because of the intangibles … He's tough, he runs the team, and he scores when he needs to. He's just a really good player. I thought above all what Zhaire did is just competed. I mean you can't stop guys like this, but you can compete. You can make it tough on them. You know, you'd have to ask Carter that question. But I think Zhaire, at the very minimum, competed against him."

Trailing 47-36 at the 12:58 mark of the second half, the Red Raiders made their move with a 12-2 run over the next 2:55 off the clock.

The freshmen trio of Culver, Smith and Moretti sparked the flurry. Culver found a cutting Smith for a two-handed slam. Then, Culver went to the basket and hit a layup. Moretti canned a trey from the right wing late shot clock to bring the tally to 47-43 with 11:13 left.

Evans got an outlet layup in transition, and Moretti connected with Francis for a three-ball on the right baseline to make it 49-48 with 9:46 to go.
Texas Tech snatched a 58-57 lead with 5:40 remaining on two Gray free throws, and the two teams would go back-and-forth until the closing minutes.

Stevenson broke a 65-65 tie with two clutch free throws at the 2:07 mark to give the Red Raiders the lead for good. At 68-66, Evans used an Odiase screen and leaned in for a midrange jumper through contact on the right elbow to extend it to a two-possession game with 38.7 seconds left.

Texas Tech would use free throws from Odiase and Smith to push the lead to six points. The Mountaineers scored the last five points which included a Carter trey with under a second left for the final margin of 72-71.

West Virginia controlled the tempo early and its pressure defensive forced the Red Raiders into 10 turnovers in the first half. Carter and Ahmad did the heavy lifting with 24 of the team's 38 points as the Mountaineers secured a 38-31 halftime lead.

"It's real early, knock on wood on that," Beard said. "We won some close games last year too, but we were on the bad end of it more than the good. Let me think about this, everybody in this room understands Big 12 basketball. The difference between a disappointing season and a good season is three or four possessions. The difference between a good season and a great season is another three or four possessions. We were right there last year. This year, it is nice to win close games, but we're just getting started. This race doesn't even really start until February. We're still all just kind of positioning ourselves and trying to survive and win the next one. I got a great friend who this week told me 'prince today, frog tomorrow.' For some reason in the heat of the game, I kept thinking about that. I don't know why … I know we're going to be a frog again at some point, this is the Big 12, but I want to be a prince one more day. I'm happy for our players. They made enough plays to win a close game."

UP NEXT
Texas Tech begins a stretch of three of its next four games on the road as the Red Raiders travel to Texas on Wednesday. Tip time is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT, and the game will be televised by Longhorn Network along with the ESPN app.

Visit www.TexasTech.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by liking TexasTechMBB on Facebook along with following @TexasTechMBB on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.