No. 15 Texas Tech got back to work Sunday against Winthrop for the first time since a historic victory and was in complete control from the start en route to an 87-57 triumph in Lubbock, Texas.
Sparked by Christian Anderson, the Red Raiders (10-3) took a 59-21 advantage at halftime with an almost flawless opening for 20 minutes and helped by a miserable shooting performance from the Eagles (8-7).
Winthrop showed courage in the second half to prevent the blowout from getting worse, defeating the Red Raiders 36-28. However, the onslaught of the first half left no doubt.
En route to a game-high 29 points, Anderson had 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 over No. 3 Duke on Dec. 21 at Madison Square Garden. He scored Texas Tech’s final 16 points of the half and made 7 of 10 from the field, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range.
As a team, Texas Tech shot a solid 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 made 14 and JT Toppin scored 14 and grabbed 11 rebounds. That quartet accounted for 24 of Texas Tech’s 27 field goals and all 10 of its triples (on 25 attempts).
Logan Duncomb and Kareem Rozier led the Eagles with 11 points each.
Eight days after erasing a 17-point deficit to stun Duke, the Red Raiders showed no signs of disappointment, even coming off the break.
Texas Tech jumped out to a 27-4 advantage in the opening 9:19, scoring 11 of 16 along the way with nine assists. Petty and Atwell each drained a pair of 3s to spark the fast start and Anderson had three of his five assists.
Once the lead grew to 45-14, Anderson took over and was a one-man wrecking crew over the final 4:02 minutes with 16 straight points, punctuated by three 3-pointers.
As hot as the Red Raiders were early on, Winthrop was just as cold. The Eagles entered the day with a 37.1% success rate from 3-point territory. On Sunday, the Eagles missed their first 11 deep downs and were 1 of 14 at halftime. They had more turnovers (8) than shots (6) in the first 20 minutes.
Winthrop heated up in the second half and went on an 18-7 run to start the second half, closing within 27 points. The Eagles, whose first six losses were by single digits before Sunday, finished the day shooting 31.7 percent (19 of 60) and were 4 of 25 from 3-point land.
–Field level media
