No. 15 Texas Tech got back to work Sunday against Winthrop for the first time since a historic comeback victory and was in full control from the start on the way to an 87-57 triumph in Lubbock, Texas.
Ignited by Christian Anderson, the Red Raiders (10-3) stormed in front 59-21 by halftime with an almost flawless opening 20 minutes and aided by a miserable shooting performance by the Eagles (8-7).
Winthrop showed some grit in the second half to prevent the blowout from worsening, outscoring the Red Raiders 36-28. However, the first-half onslaught left no doubt.
On the way to a game-high 29 points, Anderson racked up 25 in the first half, a nice bookend to the 23 he scored in the second half to fuel the Red Raiders’ 82-81 comeback victory against No. 3 Duke on Dec. 21 at Madison Square Garden. He scored Texas Tech’s final 16 points of the half and was 7-for-10 from the floor, including 4-for-7 from 3-point range.
As a team, Texas Tech shot a sizzling 65.6% (21 of 32) from the field before halftime and connected on 9-of-15 from beyond the arc in its highest scoring half this season. Jaylen Petty added 20 points for the Red Raiders, Donovan Atwell matched Anderson with four 3-pointers and scored 14 and JT Toppin scored 14 and grabbed 11 rebounds. That quartet accounted for 24 of Texas Tech’s 27 made field goals and all 10 of its treys (in 25 attempts).
Logan Duncomb and Kareem Rozier paced the Eagles with 11 points each.
Eight days after erasing a 17-point deficit to stun Duke, the Red Raiders showed no signs of letting down, even coming off the holiday break.
Texas Tech raced to a 27-4 advantage in the opening 9:19, hitting 11-of-16 field goals along the way with nine assists. Petty and Atwell each drained a pair of 3s to ignite the quick start and Anderson had three of his five assists.
Once the lead swelled to 45-14, Anderson took over and was a one-man wrecking crew over the last 4:02 with 16 points in a row, punctuated by three 3-pointers.
As hot as the Red Raiders were from the outset, Winthrop was just as cold. The Eagles came into the day shooting 37.1% from 3-point territory. On Sunday, the Eagles missed their first 11 tries from deep and were 1-for-14 at halftime. They had more turnovers (8) than made shots (6) in the opening 20 minutes.
Winthrop heated up in the second half and bolted to an 18-7 run to begin the second half, getting as close as 27 points. The Eagles, whose first six losses came by single digits before Sunday, ended the day shooting 31.7% (19 of 60) and were 4-for-25 from 3-point land.
–Field Level Media
