Texas Tech unbeaten in hoops
LUBBOCK, Texas—Jarrett Culver scored 13 points, Matt Mooney had 11 and No. 13 Texas Tech remained undefeated with a 65-47 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Wednesday night.
The Red Raiders (8-0) entered as the nation’s top team in field goal defense, and that trend continued in their first home game this season as a ranked team.
Martaveous McKnight scored 27 points for Pine Bluff (2-6), but was the only Lions player with more than four. The Lions shot 32.6 percent from the field (14 of 43) and their only lead came when Cameron Posey’s 3-pointer made it 3-2 less than two mintues into the game.
Davide Moretti then hit a 3-pointer and had a fastbreak layup within a span of 15 second to put the Red Raiders ahead to stay.
The Raiders pieced together their biggest run early in the second half to finally shake free of Pine Bluff. Chris Smith’s two free throws with just under 15 minutes left had Pine Bluff within 43-31. Tech then scored the next 13 points, buoyed by back-to-back thunderous slam dunks by Tariq Owens slam dunks and a slick three-point play by Culver when he drove the baseline for an up-and-under finger roll off a pass from Mooney.
Kyler Edwards added 10 points for Texas Tech.
UP NEXT
UAPB heads to the West Coast to take on UC-Santa Barbara on Saturday night.
Texas Tech has a break for final exams before returning to action Dec. 12 at home against Northwestern State from Louisiana. VCU 54, Texas 53 AUSTIN—Marcus Evans scored 16 points and De’Riante Jenkins added 12, helping VCU hand Texas its second straight loss at home against a mid-major opponent, 54-53 Wednesday night.
Marcus Santos-Silva had 10 points, and career highs with 16 rebounds and five steals for the Rams (7-2).
Texas (5-3) has lost three straight, including a threepoint defeat by Radford last week.
The Longhorns had two shots to win the game in the final 40 seconds, but Courtney Ramey and Matt Coleman missed open 3-pointers, the latter as time ran out.
Jericho Sims led Texas with 14 points. Nobody else reached double figures.
VCU turned 18 Texas turnovers into 17 points and 17 offensive rebounds into 19 points.
Sims made a shot in the lane to leave Texas trailing by one point with 4:12 remaining. The Longhorns then had four turnovers and a missed a shot on their next five possessions, while VCU made two free throws—by Issac Vann—during that stretch for a three-point lead.
A steal by Longhorn Jaxson Hayes led to a fastbreak basket by Kerwin Roach with 1:29 left, and VCU again led by one.
Evans and Jenkins scored 12 points apiece as VCU took a 32-31 halftime lead. Evans scored seven in the final 1:19, the last five on free throws. Jenkins, meanwhile, made four 3-point baskets in the half.
UP NEXT
Texas is at home against Purdue, which missed the AP top 25 rankings by one point this week, on Sunday in the second of six straight home games for the Longhorns. Texas and Purdue have met three times but not since 2003. The Longhorns won two of those games, including a 73-72 contest in the second round of the 1990 NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis.