Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Athletics
21-7,11-4Big 12
Cincinnati
15-13,7-8Big 12
No. 16 Tech rolls past Cincinnati
February 24, 2026 | Men's Basketball
LUBBOCK – Christian Anderson recorded his eighth double-double of the season with 31 points and a career-high 11 rebounds while adding seven assists to help lead No. 16 Texas Tech to an 80-68 win over Cincinnati on Tuesday at United Supermarkets Arena. The Red Raiders (21-7, 11-4 Big 12) improved to 14-1 at home this season and snapped the Bearcats (15-13, 7-8 Big 12) four-game winning streak.
"Our team really played together," Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. "They played with a consistent effort to improve. That's how we played. Christian Anderson was tremendous. He settled us and LeJuan Watts was awesome in the second half offensively getting foul pressure. Couple things I told our team before the game, how well we rebound and we outrebounded them 40-24 and 19-8 on second-chance points. Donovan Atwell had a couple huge offensive rebounds. Then I thought we needed to guard them without fouling and we ended up making more free throws than they shot. We haven't done that in back-to-back games all year and we did it. Those two areas were big for me and I'm thrilled with how our guys competed."
Anderson finished the game shooting 11-for-19 from the field, including making three 3-pointers while also making 6-of-6 free throws. All 11 rebounds came on the defensive end of the court and broke his previous career-best of eight rebounds against Houston last season. He played all 40 minutes for the 10th time this season and scored over 30 for the second time in his career – falling just shy of his career-high 34 points in the season opener against Lindenwood. Tech trailed by nine early in the game but never let Cincinnati make a second-half run after building a 42-34 halftime lead. Anderson, who is now averaging 19.6 points, 7.7 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game, made sure of that - scoring 19 points in the second half including going 3-for-5 on 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes. Anderson's second 3 put the Red Raiders up 55-46 and a pair of free throws gave Tech a 7-0 run and a 59-46 lead. The Bearcats never got within single digits after Anderson's free throws.
LeJuan Watts added 13 points and five rebounds, while Donovan Atwell finished with 12 points by shooting 4-for-9 on 3-pointers. Jaylen Petty went for nine points and seven rebounds, Josiah Moseley led the bench with six points, four rebounds and a career-high three blocks and Luke Bamgboye had six points, three blocks and two rebounds. Playing without all-American JT Toppin for the second time after his season-ending injury, the Red Raiders had the plus-16 rebounding advantage with eight players having at least one and also had a 28-24 scoring advantage in the paint. Tech finished the game shooting 10-for-25 (40.0%) on 3-pointers and have now made 10 or more in 22 games this season.
Moustaph Thiam led Cincinnati with 21 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double while Jale Celestine scored 15 and Jizzle James and Baba Miller had 12 each. The Bearcats shot 40.3% from the field, went 8-of-24 (33.3%) on 3-pointers and were 10-of-13 at the free-throw line. Texas Tech finished the game 16-for-20 at the free-throw line, including Watts going 5-for-6 and Bamgboye making 4-of-4 to go along with Anderson making all six of his. The Red Raiders forced only three turnovers and overcame 12 of their own.
Texas Tech took a 42-34 lead into halftime after trailing by as many as nine but responding with a 15-2 run to end the half. Anderson led the Red Raiders with 12 points, six rebounds and five assists through 20 minutes while Atwell and Petty made three 3-pointers each and had nine points. Petty was 3-for-4 from beyond the arc while Atwell went 3-for-6. Moseley and Bryan had three rebounds each in their reserve roles with Moseley also scoring four points and having two blocked shots at the break. Tech took its first lead on a Petty 3-pointer to go up 34-32 with a 7-0 run and Atwell's third 3 set the halftime score. Tech had a 18-11 rebounding advantage at halftime and was shooting 6-for-14 (42.9%) on 3-pointers. Cincinnati was 5-of-14 on its 3-point attempts and was led by Miller who had nine points and three assists. Both teams were perfect at the free-throw line with Tech going 6-for-6 and the Bearcats at 3-of-3. Bamgboye was 4-of-4 at the line for Tech and had four points and a blocked shot. Â
The Red Raiders return to action this weekend with a road game against No. 4 Iowa State at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa. Tech is 3-2 against top 10 teams this season, including wins over No. 1 Arizona, No. 3 Duke and No. 6 Houston. The team will return to Lubbock to host its home finale against TCU at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3 at the USA before playing at No. 19 BYU in the regular-season finale on March 7 in Provo, Utah.
Follow the Red Raiders: Keep up with Texas Tech men's basketball news at TexasTech.com and at the team's social media on Instagram, X and Facebook.
