Just days after getting dominated by Kansas, Texas men’s basketball boosted its postseason resume in a big way on Tuesday, entering hostile territory in Lubbock and routing Texas Tech 81-69. Behind positive contributions from the top of the rotation to the bottom, a Texas team desperate for a win sucked the air out of the Red Raiders’ arena, racing out to an early lead and never letting Texas Tech make a real push.
The Longhorns suffocated the Red Raiders in the first half, holding the home team to 24.3% shooting in the period. Behind some lackluster shooting from Texas, Texas Tech shaved the lead to five, but the Longhorns blew the game open on a 20-3 run and finished the half hitting nine of their final 10 shots to lead 47-23.
For the first 10 minutes of the second half, it was more of the same from Texas, as the Longhorns pushed their lead to 29 points and seemed to have the game on ice.
However, tempers flared with just over 10 minutes to play, as graduate forward Brock Cunningham was ejected on a flagrant-two foul following a hard collision with Texas Tech’s Darrion Williams. The sequence prompted an aggressive Red Raider crowd to throw water bottles onto the court, stopping play for several minutes and leading Texas Tech Head Coach Grant McCasland to plead with the crowd to stop after two technical fouls were handed out.
An energized Texas Tech squad made a 16-6 run to shave the deficit to 15 points with just over five minutes to go. The Red Raider defense shut down the Texas offense for a stretch, but some crucial plays from sophomore guard Chendall Weaver helped Texas to stem the tide. The UT-Arlington transfer ended a six-minute Texas field goal drought with a floater, made a huge block in transition and knocked down a pair of free throws to help the Longhorns weather the storm in one of his most impactful performances to date.
Texas benefitted from the absence of Texas Tech center Warren Washington, as the Longhorns dominated the Red Raiders in the paint all night, out-rebounding them 44 to 30. Graduate forward Kadin Shedrick finally looked like the untapped talent head coach Rodney Terry and his staff rolled the dice on in the transfer portal, impacting Texas Tech on both ends of the floor with his size and physicality in one of his best games of the season.
The much-improved play of graduate guard Max Abmas was another catalyst for Texas’ effort. Abmas, who averaged less than seven points over his past three games, broke out of his slump, finishing with 18 points and canning four threes.
Texas remains an unsteady team, but takes a massive step toward punching tickets to both March Madness and its final Big 12 Tournament appearance with the victory. The Longhorns will look to string together back-to-back wins for just the second time this season in conference play when they take on Oklahoma State at home on Saturday.
