Elijah Hawkins scored a season-high 22 points as Texas Tech pulled away late for a 72-67 win over BYU in a defensive struggle on Tuesday night in Provo, Utah.
Darrion Williams scored eight of his 18 points in the final 6:05 as the Red Raiders (11-3, 2-1 Big 12) completed a successful road trip in the state after romping past Utah in Salt Lake City on Saturday.
Chance McMillian also was clutch, scoring 11 of his 16 points in the final 7:17 minutes for Texas Tech, which eventually seized control in a seesaw game that included 10 ties and 15 lead changes.
Fousseyni Traore scored 14 points to pace BYU (10-4, 1-2), which lost its second straight after falling by 31 points at then-No. 14 Houston on Saturday. The loss snapped the Cougars’ 14-game home winning streak.
Mawot Mag added 11 points and five rebounds for the Cougars, who shot 43.9 percent from the floor, including 5 of 23 (21.7 percent) from distance.
The Red Raiders entered the game with the best field goal shooting percentage in Division I at 51.6 percent. But the Cougars held them to 44.8 percent, including 10 of 28 (35.7 percent) from 3-point range.
BYU limited Texas Tech’s top scorer and rebounder JT Toppin to five points and no rebounds. The Red Raiders still won the battle of the boards 39-36 as McMillian had eight rebounds and Williams added seven.
For the first 36 minutes, neither team led by more than five points.
Texas Tech trailed 53-48 after BYU’s Egor Demin made a slam dunk with 8:20 left, which capped an 11-3 Cougars’ run.
But in a span of 1:10, the Red Raiders answered with a 3-pointer from Hawkins and two more from McMillian. The shots were part of an 11-2 burst that gave Texas Tech the lead for good at 59-55 with 6:05 left.
In the slow-paced first half, BYU missed its first seven 3-point attempts but compensated by outscoring Texas Tech in the paint by 22-10.
Trey Stewart’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave the Cougars a 34-32 lead at the break.
–Field Level Media
