Texas Tech’s Kevin Obanor appears to have found his shooting stroke.
That much was evident as the Oral Roberts transfer, who was brought in for his three-point marksmanship, drained all three of his triples on the way to 11 of his 17 total points in the first half to help the No. 14 Red Raiders down No. 23 Texas 77-64 on Tuesday inside United Supermarkets Arena.
“I know the work that I put in and the reps,” said Obanor, who finished 5-for-7 from the three-point line. “Bounce happened to come in. A shooter, who doesn’t want to make shots?
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“But it’s about winning. Doing the winning things without the ball going in — like rebounding, defending, 50-50 balls. I’m just grateful that it actually went in today. Let’s see if we can keep this momentum going.”
With the victory, Texas Tech (17-5, 6-3) kept its undefeated home record intact and took sole possession of third place in the conference standings while snapping a three-game winning streak by the Longhorns (16-6, 5-4).
“You know, the thing about this game, with the players and myself, there was a lot of stress and responsibility,” Texas Tech coach Mark Adams said. “All these students camping out, and all during the summer, everybody saying, ‘Beat Texas at home. That’s all that matters.’”
And, the Red Raiders also earned a victory over the former head coach who headed up the program just a season ago.
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Marcus Carr, who finished with a team-best 18 points, said Texas coach Chris Beard did a good job preparing the team to face a hostile crowd in Lubbock.
“He explained to me that this is Texas — we’re the most hated school in the Big 12 and probably in the country,” Carr said.
The sold-out crowd certainly let Beard, who elected to join the Longhorn last April, know how they felt about his departure to an in-state rival.
“Playing with a crowd like this, it’s easy for a lot of players to become selfish and get thirsty — want the ball to go in,” Obanor said of the sold-out crowd. “But it speaks volumes to the people that we have and the team to play winning basketball — share the ball.”
Along with Obanor, add Kevin McCullar — who drew six fouls going into halftime — is back into the offense as he netted 10 points in the first 20 minutes. He ended with a game-best 19 points, including making 12 shots at the free-throw line.
Bryson Williams added 16 points and Davion Warren chipped in 10 to provide a balanced scoring attack for the Red Raiders, who improved to 14-0 at home.
“Games like this, you’ve got to have some great individual performances, and I thought Texas Tech’s three or four best players, in my opinion, all played great tonight,” Texas coach Chris Beard said. “So we had some individual performances, too, but they had some guys who really played well.
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McCullar’s most impactful shot early was a three-pointer to provide the Red Raiders their largest lead of the first stanza at 15 points at 41-26 with 1:36 left before halftime.
Prior to that point, the Longhorns trailed by as many as 12 points before engineering a 12-3 offense surge capped off with a Courtney Ramey three-pointer to close the scoring gap to one possession 22-19 with 7:45 left until the break.
Ramey, who drilled four three-pointers in the first half, was the lone offensive bright point for the Longhorns and it showed.
The Red Raiders kept every other Texas player in check on the way to closing the first stanza on a 21-10 run en route to a 43-29 advantage as both teams returned to their locker rooms.
The Longhorns turned things around after the break, outscoring Texas Tech 13-6 early in the first half to close the deficit to seven points before the Red Raiders countered and salted away the victory.
“I know it was definitely personal for the fan base and different things like that,” McCullar said. “We just went out there and we’re trying to win a Big 12 Championship this year. We know it’s still in our reach and we went out there and competed hard and we came out with a W.
“I know the fans really really wanted to beat UT and coach Beard. But we weren’t worried about that. Coach Adams kept us level-headed and we knew we were trying to compete for a Big 12 Championship. So this is another step in the right direction and we ended up beating a really good Texas team.”
What’s next?
No. 14 Texas Tech is scheduled to take on West Virginia at 1 p.m. Saturday in a contest set to be broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2.
No. 23 Texas is slated to host Iowa State at 1 p.m. Saturday in a game set to be broadcast on the Longhorn Network.
NO. 14 TEXAS TECH 77, NO. 23 TEXAS 64
TEXAS (16-6, 5-4)
T.Allen 2-6 1-2 5, Bishop 4-7 3-4 11, Mitchell 3-4 0-0 6, Carr 5-12 7-8 18, Ramey 4-10 0-0 12, Cunningham 1-2 0-0 3, Jones 1-7 2-3 4, Askew 1-2 1-2 3, Disu 0-1 0-0 0, Febres 1-3 0-0 2, Benson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-55 14-19 64.
TEXAS TECH (17-5, 6-3)
Obanor 5-8 2-2 17, Williams 7-11 0-0 16, Arms 0-6 1-2 1, McCullar 3-7 12-15 19, Warren 3-7 4-5 10, Wilson 2-6 1-2 5, Santos-Silva 3-3 1-4 7, Nadolny 0-0 0-0 0, Shannon 1-2 0-0 2, Batcho 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-51 21-30 77.
Halftime_Texas Tech 43-29. 3-Point Goals_Texas 6-23 (Ramey 4-10, Cunningham 1-1, Carr 1-3, Benson 0-1, Disu 0-1, Febres 0-2, Jones 0-5), Texas Tech 8-19 (Obanor 5-7, Williams 2-2, McCullar 1-3, Batcho 0-1, Arms 0-2, Warren 0-2, Wilson 0-2). Fouled Out_Cunningham. Rebounds_Texas 25 (Bishop 8), Texas Tech 36 (Arms 9). Assists_Texas 10 (Carr, Askew 3), Texas Tech 13 (Arms 4). Total Fouls_Texas 25, Texas Tech 20. A_15,300 (15,098).
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Kevin Obanor nets 17 as Texas Tech basketball defeats Texas