Texas Tech Athletics
12-4,3-2Big 12
Kansas State
7-9,1-4Big 12
Red Raiders earn road win over Wildcats
January 14, 2025 | Men's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kansas – It wasn't a basketball clinic, but it was another Texas Tech road win.
Elijah Hawkins scored the go-ahead basket with 5:28 remaining in a 61-57 win by the Red Raiders (12-4, 3-2 Big 12) where Kansas State didn't score in the final five minutes and Darrion Williams put it away with a layup with 17 seconds to play off a Hawkins assist on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats (7-9, 1-4 Big 12) scored their final points of the game with a pair of free throws with 5:50 on the clock to tie the game at 57 and finished by missing their final eight shots and committing four turnovers in the final eight minutes.
"I've got be honest, this was one of the ugliest finishes to a game that I've been a part of, and I say that thankful that we won," Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. "Both teams struggled to put the ball in the hole. We were dropping the ball out of bounds, they were throwing it away and we were throwing it away. I felt like we got stalled out. Give credit to their switch ability, size and length. They anticipate well and when they played in between it made it difficult on us."
The Red Raiders have now started Big 12 play with three straight wins on the road for only the second time in program history and the first since the 1996-97 team won three in a row before losing its fourth. McCasland, who was coaching his 50th game leading the program, improved to 35-15.Â
Texas Tech returns to Lubbock where it will host Arizona at 1 p.m. on Saturday at United Supermarkets Arena. The Wildcats (11-5, 5-0 Big 12) knocked off No. 25 Baylor on Tuesday with an 81-70 win in Tucson to extend a seven-game winning streak.Â
The Red Raiders improved to 3-0 in Big 12 road games after recording a 35-24 rebounding advantage and surviving a game where it committed 14 turnovers and made only five 3-pointers. Williams led Tech with 16 points and also had four rebounds and three assists, while Hawkins finished with 14 points and led Tech with 10Â assists and added five rebounds. Federiko Federiko had nine points and seven rebounds, Christian Anderson finished with eight points and six rebounds and JT Toppin provided six points and four rebounds. Tech finished the night shooting 5-for-13 on 3-pointers, were 26-for-52 (50.0 percent) from the field and only 4-for-7 at the free-throw line but did came away with nine offensive rebounds along with owning a 40-18 scoring advantage in the paint.
K-State shot 36.5 percent from the field and were 9-for-30 (30.0 percent) on 3-pointers along with committing 10 turnovers. Brendan Hausen led the Wildcats with 13 points after going 3-for-8 from beyond the arc while Coleman Hawkins added 12 points with two 3-pointers. David N'Guessan added 11 points and Max Jones scored 10.
"I wouldn't really say our defense made them miss, but we were able to get the loose balls," McCasland said. "That was the difference in the game."
Hawkins scored Tech's first points coming out of halftime with his first 3-pointer to trim a K-State lead to 35-34 before a Jones 3-pointer gave the Wildcats a 41-36 lead early in the second half. Hawkins drilled his second 3 to tie the game at 44-all with 14:11 remaining, giving him 10 points and pushing a run to 6-0 for the Red Raiders who had made four of its last five shots to even the game. Anderson pushed the run to 9-0 with a tough and-one and to 11-0 Â with a fastbreak layup. The run was up to 13-0 on a Federiko dunk off a lob from Hawkins for a 51-44 lead that forced K-State to call a timeout with 12:33 remaining. A Hawkins layup ended the run before he hit back-to-back 3-pointers to trim Tech's lead to 53-52 with 10 minutes to play. The Wildcats regained the lead with a Castillo floater and Williams gave it back to the Red Raiders with a layup inside nine minutes.
"Our energy starts when we can get stops and can play in transition," McCasland said. "That's really something that K-State does not give up. They're a good transition team. We just could never get out and get a basket. We've been scoring on 3s in transition. They get back really well and if they don't, they foul you. That caused us problems to score baskets."
The Red Raiders led 57-55 on a basket from Hawkins with seven minutes remaining and were up 59-57 with five to play after he made another shot with 5:28 on the clock – proving to be the game-winning basket.
Tech led for 15 of 20 minutes in the first half but went into the locker room trailing 33-31 after a Dug McDaniel floater at the halftime buzzer. The Red Raiders led by as many as eight points in the first half which also saw four ties. Williams led Tech with 10 points and three rebounds in the first half, while Toppin had six points and Hawkins was at six assists and four points. N'Guessan led K-State with 11 first-half points and Hausen had eight points with two 3-pointers. K-State scored the game's first points before a 6-0 run from the Red Raiders that started with a Hawkins floater and back-to-back inside shots from Toppin. Williams made Tech's first 3-pointer of the game for a 14-9 lead and giving him eight of the first 14 points scored. Tech went on its second 6-0 run of the first half to take a for a 17-9 lead after a McMilliam layup before a pair of K-State free throws. The Wildcats closed to within 19-16 on a Jones 3-pointer with 7:06 on the clock, making K-State 2-for-9 from deep to begin the game while Tech was at 1-for-4. Williams got into double-digits with 10 points coming out of a timeout following the 3-pointer to give Tech a 21-16 lead before an Overton 3-pointer pushed the lead to 24-16. K-State went on a quick 11-0 run, to knot the game at 26 on a N'Guessan 3-pointer before Hausen knocked down another to give the Wildcats a 29-26 lead. Anderson ended the run with a 3-pointer after an offensive rebound from Williams. The Red Raiders went into the break shooting 13-for-28 (46.4 percent) from the field and were 3-for-6 (50.0 percent) on 3-pointers. The Wildcats were 11-for-15 (44.0 percent) from the field, 5-for-14 (35.7 percent) from deep and were 6-for-6 at the free-throw line. Tech went into the halftime 2-for-3 from the charity stripe and owning an 18-9 rebounding advantage, including a 7-1 margin on the offensive end.
Darrion Williams
Finished with 16 points on the night. Fifteenth time this season reaching double figure points, 44th time in his career. Eleventh time scoring 15+ points in a game this season, 21st time in his career.
Elijah Hawkins
Finished with 14 points and 10 assists on the night for his third double-double of the season... Fifth game with with seven or more assists... Sixth time this season reaching double figure points. Finished with five rebounds on the night, second time this season grabbing five+ rebounds in a game.
Federiko Federiko
Finished with seven rebounds marking the seventh time this season grabbing five+ rebounds in a game. Finished with two blocks marking the first multi-block game of the season.
Christian Anderson
Finished with six rebounds making this the second time grabbing five+ rebounds this season. Finished with two steals, sixth time with a multi-steal game this season.Â
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