Texas Tech Athletics
25-8,15-5Big 12
Arizona
22-11,14-6Big 12
Tech falls to Arizona in Big 12 semis
March 15, 2025 | Men's Basketball
KANSAS CITY – No. 9 Texas Tech exited the 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship with an 86-80 semifinal loss to Arizona on Friday at T-Mobile Center.
The Red Raiders (25-8) were down starters Chance McMillian and Darrion Williams who were out with injury but still remained in the fight throughout the game before seeing the Wildcats (22-11) hold them off to advance to the championship final to play Houston. Tech fell behind 9-0 to start the game before and exchange of 10 leads in the first half. The Red Raiders are now poised to compete in the program's 21st NCAA Tournament with Selection Sunday set for 5 p.m. on Sunday.
"I thought we had great stretches," Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. "I told them in the locker room, this is not where it ends. That's the beauty of what we've done this season. This is just the beginning of another season for us that we are excited to be a part of."
Kevin Overton led Tech and matched a season-high with 20 points while Christian Anderson scored 10 points, Kerwin Walton had 13 and JT Toppin recorded 11 points and six rebounds. Elijah Hawkins led the team with five assists along with contributing eight points, six rebounds and two steals. Federiko Federiko and Anderson started in place of McMillan and Williams in the game with Anderson playing all 40 minutes and Federiko providing nine points and six rebounds in 25 minutes. Overton, who played 33 minutes as reserve in the game, was 4-for-7 from 3-point range and also finished the game with six rebounds. Anderson and Walton hit two 3s each for the Red Raiders who were 9-for-28 on 3-pointers. Overton's fourth 3-pointer of the game cut Arizona's lead to 70-66 before another 3-pointer from Walton had the game at 76-72 with three minutes remaining.
"We are a very deep team," Overton said. "We just understand whenever guys are out everybody else can step up. Like what Leon Horner did today. He hasn't played all season but he stepped in and was ready to go. It just shows our depth and how we're connected as a group and everybody can fill the roles that we need to win."
"We had some great moments and sometimes we didn't, but I think that's just due to a little fatigue," Anderson added. "Other than that, I think we played very hard the whole game. It's just on to the next."
Tech finished the game 19-for-30 from the free-throw line, with 14 offensive rebounds and limited its turnovers to only seven but were unable to overcome a 40-28 scoring advantage for Arizona inside the paint and an 11-3 second-chance point margin. Caleb Love led the Wildcats with a game-high 27 points after making 5-of-8 from deep while KJ Lewis added 15 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals. Arizona shot 31-for-61 (50.8 percent) from the field, 8-for-16 from 3-point range and was 16-for-21 at the free-throw line.
"We couldn't get timely stops," McCasland said. "When we did they got offensive rebounds and they got putbacks. I mean, it was 11-3 on second-chance points, and we actually had as many offensive rebounds as they did. We just couldn't convert them. That's credit to them. They're a physical team. We made some pretty significant errors on scouting report things that we should know. The game happens fast, so give them credit, because Arizona has an extremely talented team. They're aggressive and athletic and Tommy does a good job keeping the ball moving so it moves quickly."
Arizona took a 47-39 lead into halftime in a first half that saw 10 lead changes and five tied scores. Anderson led Tech with 11 points at the break after making two 3-pointers and going 3-of-4 at the free-throw line. Tech was 12-for-18 from the free-throw line and matched UA with 17 rebounds – 10 coming on the offensive end. Overton added nine points with two 3-pointers and Toppin had six points and three rebounds. Federiko added five points and two rebounds and Walton scored five points by going 3-for-3 at the free-throw line. Walton led the Red Raiders with three offensive rebounds at half. Tech went into the break shooting 5-for-19 from 3-point range while Arizona was 5-for-8 on 3s and 8-for-8 at the free-throw line. The Wildcats opened the game on a 9-0 run before the Red Raiders fought back and were down 14-9 after Anderson's first 3-pointer. His second tied the game at 19-all and an Overton 3-pointer extended a 9-0 run and gave Tech its first lead at 22-19. Overton would give Tech the lead again at 32-31 before the Wildcats made their final six shots of the half and took the eight-point lead going into the locker room.
"We've got to pay attention to those things if we want to win and make a run in the NCAA Tournament," If there is anything I take away from this, it's we've got to fine tune those details, because I thought our scrap and our effort level was great. Especially considering the circumstances. Our execution with what we did defensively was not great. In regards to personnel and actions that we knew they were going to run that we weren't able to do a better job making it difficult."
Texas Tech was making its eighth appearance in the Big 12 Championship semifinals and falls 2-6 in those games and to 18-27 overall in 28 tournaments.Â
Follow the Red Raiders: Keep up with Texas Tech men's basketball news at TexasTech.com and at the team's social media on Instagram, X and Facebook.
