Hot Shooting Red Raiders Thump Jayhawks

 – A school-record 16 3-pointers and a 60 percent shooting night propelled the No. 14/14 Texas Tech Red Raiders to a 91-62 win over the No. 12/12 Kansas Jayhawks Saturday night inside United Supermarkets Arena. Redshirt-junior Dedric Lawson led KU with 14 points to go along with five rebounds, but that was countered with a game-high 26 points from TTU’s Jarrett Culver and six different Red Raiders hitting multiple 3-pointers to end KU’s eight-game winning streak in Lubbock.

The loss, which marked KU’s largest margin of defeat in a conference game since 2000, dropped the Jayhawks to 20-7 on the year and 9-5 in the Big 12. Texas Tech went to 22-5 in its season and 10-4 in Big 12 play.

Right from the opening tip, it seemed as though nothing could go right for the Jayhawks, while Texas Tech could do no wrong. The Red Raiders came out of the gates on fire, hitting eight of their first 10 tries from the field, which included four of their nine first-half 3-pointers. As they scorched the nets early, KU had issues on its own offensive end, committing four turnovers within the first eight minutes to help Texas Tech jump out to a 21-10 lead.

Over the final 10 minutes of the first half, the Red Raiders still seemingly couldn’t miss. Three-straight TTU triples saw the home team’s lead swell to 20 points, 37-17, still with 6:33 left in the first frame. That trio of threes was part of a 17-5 run by Texas Tech to close the first half and hand the Jayhawks their largest halftime deficit in over 18 years. KU got just one field goal over the final 7:30 before the intermission to head to the locker room in a 45-20 hole.

The Red Raiders closed the half shooting 54.8 percent (17-of-31), while KU managed just nine first-half field goals with no Jayhawk scoring more than four points in the opening 20 minutes.

Following the intermission, Texas Tech’s 3-point shooting cooled briefly, but the Jayhawks still struggled cutting into the deficit. Sophomore Marcus Garrett connected on his first triple of the game just under four minutes into the second half and got KU to within 20 points, 54-34. But TTU heated up once again minutes later and used a 16-6 run to see the lead grow to over 30 points, 77-46, with seven minutes to go in regulation.

Charlie Moore and K.J. Lawson both connected on threes over the waning minutes, but KU was unable to make a dent in its deficit as Texas Tech closed out the 91-62 victory, its largest in the series against KU.

Lawson led the Jayhawks in scoring for the 13th time this season, going 3-of-8 from the field and adding seven free throws to collect 14 points in 26 minutes. Moore and Garrett each added nine points as the two combined to go 4-of-8 from 3-point range. David McCormack and K.J. Lawson rounded out KU’s top scorers as they added eight points apiece.

TTU ended the game going 34-of-56 from the field for a 60.7 percent clip, the first time this season a KU opponent has shot over 50 percent. The Jayhawks were 22-of-48 from the field (45.8 percent) including a 9-of-21 mark (42.9 percent) from beyond the arc.