Red Raiders drop Big 12 opener

Tuesday, December 31

Lubbock, Texas

1 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

9-3,0-1Big 12

UCF

10-2,1-0Big 12

UCF

Texas Tech

December 31, 2024 | Men's Basketball

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By: Wes Bloomquist

LUBBOCK – Texas Tech cut an 18-point deficit down to one in the final 30 seconds of the game but couldn't complete the comeback in an 87-83 loss to UCF on Tuesday to open Big 12 play at United Supermarkets Arena.

The Red Raiders (9-3, 0-1 Big 12) trailed by six at halftime and were down 18 with 10 minutes remaining before storming back to make it 84-83 after a pair of JT Toppin second-chance baskets. UCF (10-2, 1-0 Big 12) would make four free throws in the final 20 seconds and a pair of 3-pointers missed for the Red Raiders who dropped their first home game of the season. The Knights finished the game 19-for-22 at the free-throw line, while Tech uncharacteristically struggled on 3-pointers, going just 3-for-16 from beyond the arc.

"It was a disappointing start," Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. "That's an understatement. Give them a lot of credit. Darius Johnson and his leadership and physicality and the way they guarded made it extremely difficult on us. Their switching and physicality and then drove it at us and put us on our heels. We couldn't guard them. That's on me 100 percent. I have to have us ready to go defensively. To start Big 12 play with this lack of physicality and let a team come into our place and let a team score 87 points is ridiculous. There's a lot of improvement we can make. I love our team and our team identifies that we can play good offensively and score, but we have a lot of growing up to do and experience that is needed to be a legitimate contender in this league. I loved our scrap at the end of the game."

Toppin finished the game with a season-high 26 points and added 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season after missing the previous four games. He was 11-for-19 from the field and also matched a season-best with four blocked shots. His final two makes came on two of his four offensive rebounds. Chance McMillian and Federiko Federiko scored 12 points each, while Darrion Williams and Elijah Hawkins scored 11 each. Kevin Overton was 2-for-4 on 3-pointers, finishing with nine points and Christian Anderson contributed a team-high five assists. Toppin's 26 points were one shy of his career-high and he now has 17 career double-doubles.

UCF had two players go over 20 points with Johnson going for 24 points with two 3-pointers and finishing the game 8-for-10 at the free-throw line and Keyshawn Hall who added 22 points and eight rebounds. Hall started the game 9-for-9 from the field and finished it going 4-for-4 on 3-pointers and 9-for-13 from the field. The Knights were 10-for-23 from 3-point range in the win to go along with their 19 makes from the free-throw line.

The Red Raiders used an 11-0 run to get back into the game, sparked by a McMillian alley-oop dunk off a Hawkins assist before Hawkins got the rim for an easy layup. Toppin cut the deficit to 71-64 with a jumper before a pair of Johnson free throws ended the run. With six minutes to play, Williams made a back-down jumper to cut to 75-68 with six remaining and then converted an and-one to trim it to 79-73 with four minutes remaining. McMillian hit his only 3-pointer of the game to make it 82-78 with three minutes to play and Toppin's series of second-chance baskets got the Red Raiders to one before the Knights closed it out at the line.

UCF took a 47-41 lead into halftime after making six 3s and seeing the Red Raiders go just 2-for-8 from beyond the arc. Toppin led Tech with 11 points on 5-for-9 shooting in 13 minutes of play while Overton had nine points and Federiko had provided eight points and four rebounds. Hawkins had seven points, three rebounds and one assist. Anderson was leading Tech with four assists and also had two points and two rebounds. Tech scored the first four points of the game but UCF went on an early 9-0 run to take 13-6 lead before Toppin converted an and-one end. Williams, who banked in a jumper from the free-throw line for the game's first points, was limited to only those two points in the first half. UCF was leading 30-29 with 7:33 on the clock after a pair of McMillian free throws coming out of a timeout and was up 36-29 before another Toppin layup to give him 11 points. Overton converted an and-one to cut Tech's deficit to 38-34 with four minutes remaining and followed with a deep 3 at the shot-clock buzzer to make it a 44-39 game. The Red Raiders went into the break shooting 16-for-35 (45.7 percent) from the field and 7-for-7 at the free-throw line. UCF was at 16-for-28 (57.1 percent) from the field and had made 9-of-10 at the line.

Texas Tech will now have a two-game road trip in the state of Utah, first taking on the Utes at 6 p.m. (CST) on Saturday in Salt Lake City before playing BYU next Tuesday at 8 p.m. (CST) in Provo, Utah. The Red Raiders return home from the trip to host No. 3 Iowa State at 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 11 at United Supermarkets Arena.

UCF now holds a 2-1 all-time advantage in the series with the two teams not meeting again in the regular season.

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