Texas Tech Men’s Basketball Extends Win Streak to 6

The Red Raiders notched a 79-67 win over South Dakota State Wednesday at United Supermarkets Arena. The win took the Red Raiders current win streak to 6 wins and are now 7-1 on the season.

The Red Raiders capitalized on 20 South Dakota State turnovers and piled up 23 of the game’s 28 points off turnovers.

“I’m really proud of our kids, and the energy and effort they gave in the second half,” Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith said. “We beat a good team tonight. They’re a team that’s probably going to be in postseason play. They’re picked to win their conference, the Summit League. We did some good things. I thought the key was defending and holding them under 80 points.”

Toddrick Gotcher, Zach Smith, Norense Odiase and Devaugntah Williams all reached double figures. During their six-game winning streak, the Red Raiders have had at least four players amass double figures on five occasions. Tech’s bench was fueled by Justin Gray, Aaron Ross and Devon Thomas who pumped in seven points apiece.

Texas Tech was 27-for-57 from the floor, 5-for-14 from three-point territory and buried 20-for-24 at the free throw line. The Red Raiders have sank at least 15 foul shots in six of their seven wins. Tech also notched season-highs with eight blocks and 10 steals.
South Dakota State countered with 22-of-59 shooting performance while draining 9 threes. SDSU sank 14 of its 15 free throw attempts.

Texas Tech rattled home six of its first eight field goal attempts to race out to a 15-2 advantage during the opening 5:23 of the contest before falling behind and taking a 38-36 deficit into halftime.

Ahead 53-52 with 12:26 remaining, Texas Tech seized the momentum for good with an 11-0 run over a 1:58 span. Smith put the cherry on top with a pair of highlight reel dunks 11 seconds apart to vault the Red Raiders to a 64-52 advantage with 10:04 to go.

“Everybody gets energized when Zach or someone gets a dunk,” Smith said. “It’s only worth 2 points, but it seemed like it was worth a bunch at the time. Our bench got into it, we were struggling. They were knocking down threes. (Reed) Tellinghuisen was really playing well and lighting it up. I thought we did a better job on him in the second half, and that was key to the game. But you’re right, that stretch was huge for us. It turned up the tempo of the game and got our guys energized.”

South Dakota State trimmed the deficit to nine points on three occasions, the latest at 74-65 on a Tellinghuisen triple with 3:05 left. Tech quickly returned its lead to double figures after Ross muscled his way into a second-chance layup.

Tubby Smith and his Red Raiders are back in action on Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. CT from the United Supermarkets Arena.

source: Texastech.com