Longhorns earn 81-69 win at Texas Tech, silencing a raucous Red Raider crowd

Tuesday night’s contest was the final scheduled men’s basketball game between the Texas Longhorns and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. As expected, United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock was charged up and ready to send the Longhorns back to Austin with one more loss before UT heads to the Southeastern Conference.

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Texas had something to say about that, and said it from the jump. The Longhorns went to one of the most hostile environments in the Big 12 and earned a crucial conference win, leading from start to finish and dominating for almost the entire 40 minutes to leave West Texas with an 81-69 victory.

Dylan Disu led all scorers with 21 points. Max Abmas returned to form, scoring 18 points. Those two were joined in double-figures by Chendall Weaver, who had 15 points, and Kadin Shedrick, who added 10.

Texas improved to 18-10 and 7-8 in Big 12 play.

The victory was also a Quadrant 1 win in the NET rankings with three games left in the regular season: one at home versus Oklahoma State on Saturday, a road rematch at Baylor, and senior day versus the rival Oklahoma Sooners. The fact that Longhorns earned a Quadrant 1 win, their fifth, was key considering the Baylor game is likely to be their only remaining Quadrant 1 opportunity in the regular season.

Texas set the tone for the contest early in the first half with a 6-0 run to start, which calmed a rowdy Red Raider crowd. Points in the paint helped push the lead from six to 10 when Shedrick put down a dunk then two more layups.

The Longhorns would go through a short dry stretch that saw the Red Raiders cut the lead to as low as five, but Texas began to pull away after the under-eight timeout.

Weaver started the spurt, then Disu and Abmas found an offensive rhythm to help push the Texas lead to 20 with under three minutes left in the half. Disu had been Texas’ main offensive cog in the past few games due to Abmas encountering the first real slump of his historic career. The Oral Roberts transfer entered 2-for-his-last-15 from three. He got of schneid against the Red Raiders connecting on 4-of-9 first-half shots and 3-of-7 looks from distance for 11 first-half points.

Disu, attacking a Red Raider defense without starting big man Warren Washington, one-upped his teammate with 12 in the opening period.

Meanwhile, Texas Tech could not find the basket at all in the first 20 minutes. Tech was a paltry 8-for-33 in the first half, including a stretch from the 16:30 mark to the 9:34 mark where the Red Raiders missed 12 straight shots. TTU left looks unconverted due to their own shortcomings but also thanks to the Longhorns. Texas’ defense impacted a number of attempts around the rim, tallying four blocks in the first half. Tech did not attempt a dunk in the opening 20 minutes.

The Longhorns entered halftime up 47-23.

Texas extended the lead to 29 in the first 2:59 of the second half. From that point, Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland had his team play with extreme urgency. With 11:35 left, his team had made it a 21-point game.

Then, tempers flared with 10:15 left in the game. Brock Cunningham and Texas Tech’s Kerwin Walton both sprinted after a loose ball. Cunningham hip-checked Walton into the announcer’s table, then was ejected due to a flagrant 2 foul. However, debris thrown on the court by angry Red Raider fans gave the Longhorns a chance to cancel out the two free throws due to an administrative technical. McCasland had to take to the public address system to tell his fans to quit hurting his team’s efforts.

That emboldened the crowd of 15,098, but it was to little effect. Texas controlled most of the rest of the contest and were able to see most of that 15,098 depart before the final buzzer. The Red Raiders could never shrink the Longhorn lead below 15 points, save for when Chance McMillian hit an inconsequential three-pointer with five seconds left in the game.

The Longhorns shot 60 percent from the field in the first half, hitting 18-of-30 shots. They also were 4-for-12 from three and 7-of-9 at the free throw line. The shot-making from the field dipped in the second half, with Rodney Terry‘s team shooting 8-for-26 from the field and 1-for-10 from three. The work at the line was enough to help Texas to its third double-digit road win of the season.

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Texas welcomes Oklahoma State on Saturday at 1 p.m. for the second to last home game of the 2023-24 season.