Warren Washington scored a career-best 18 points to go with 12 rebounds and Texas Tech used a big run early in the second half to pull away from Oral Roberts and claim an 82-76 victory in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday.
Buoyed by a 10-0 run in the opening two minutes after halftime, Texas Tech built a cushion that hovered near double digits for most of the rest of the night despite a hot shooting performance by the Golden Eagles.
Oral Roberts shot 46.9 percent in the second half. Much of that damage came from beyond the 3-point arc, where the Golden Eagles were 8 of 20 in the second half and 16 of 36 (44.4 percent) for the game.
Texas Tech (7-2) offset that shooting with an 18-4 scoring advantage at the foul line. The Red Raiders took 20 more shots from the stripe than the Golden Eagles attempted.
Kerwin Walton produced his second strong scoring game in a row, with 17 points for Texas Tech. Darrion Williams logged a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards.
ORU (5-6) got 26 points from Jailen Bedford, who cranked in 6 of 8 from 3-point range. Kareem Thompson knocked down 5 of 7 from deep on the way to 21 points.
Texas Tech led just 38-34 at halftime after squandering a chance to build a double-digit lead before the break.
ORU’s Issac McBride buried a 3-pointer with 33 seconds to go before halftime and Texas Tech’s final possession was empty when Sir Isaac Herron blocked a layup attempt right before the buzzer.
The Red Raiders seized command quickly after halftime when they hit their first four shots, three from beyond the arc, to extend the lead to 48-34.
The Golden Eagles stopped the bleeding briefly when Thompson pumped in a 3, but Texas Tech’s lead eventually swelled to 56-37 on Robert Jennings’ putback at the 16:11 juncture of the second half.
Oral Roberts clawed back within single digits several times in the last 8½ minutes, but the Red Raiders converted 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to nail down their 27th consecutive nonconference home win.
–Field Level Media