Texas Tech cruises by Houston Christian for 28th straight home win

“To heck with defense, we’re going to try to hit the century mark every time,” joked Texas Tech head coach Mark Adams. “We’ve said all along that shooting could be a strength of this team. We pushed the ball and played with pace. Our motto is, ‘Together, We Attack’. We want to be aggressive on both ends and our guys are starting to buy into that.”

The Red Raiders (9-2) owned a 49-28 halftime lead and were never in distress throughout the game as they also extended 22 non-conference home winning streak and are 7-0 at home this season. HCU fell to 3-10 with the loss. Adams improved to 25-0 at home as the program’s head coach with the victory.

Harmon scored his season-high 22 points after going 8-for-10 from the field and also had a career-high nine assists. He was 2-for-3 on 3-pointers and also hit four free throws. His previous career-high in assists was six, including earlier this month against Eastern Washington and last season against Utah when he was playing for Oregon. He is now averaging 12.0 points and leads Tech with 3.9 assists after passing previous season-highs of 19 points against EWU and 18 in the win over Georgetown.

“Today, I felt like I was going kind of fast, but everything was slowed down so it made it easier on shots and finding my guys,” Harmon said. “I’m proud of how great we played and now it’s time to get some rest.”

Obanor added 22 points and nine rebounds, falling one rebound short of his 37th career double-double and second of the season but extended a streak of 10 straight games scoring in double figures. He was 7-for-12 from the field, including going 2-for-4 on 3-pointers. Obanor, who started his 48th straight game at Tech, added six points with a 6-for-6 performance at the free-throw line and is now leading the team with 15.6 points per game. Batcho, who missed the previous two games with an injury, came off the bench for the first time this season and finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds. He also had double-doubles against Northwestern State and Georgetown and now has four games with double-figure rebounds. Batcho is now averaging 12.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game this season.

Jaylon Tyson added 11 points and a career-high five assists, while Robert Jennings scored eight points from the starting lineup and Kerwin Walton scored eight points for the second straight game. Walton was 2-for-4 on 3-pointers in the game where Tech went 9-for-22 from beyond the arc. Pop Isaacs also had two 3-pointers, finishing with six points and also having a career-high six assists while Lamar Washington contributed seven points and three steals. KJ Allen added six points and Elijah Fisher added five for the bench which scored 42 points in the game.

Tech finished the game with 27 assists on 40-made shots in the game and owned a 56-24 scoring advantage in the paint. The Red Raiders had eight players have at least one assist in the game and had all 12 available players score.

“It’s really nice to see these guys get out and start to see their potential become a realization and on a consistent basis,” Adams said. “We have been really proud of Lamar. He did great. He made some really big plays today. And Elijah, you see his confidence growing all the time. Kerwin hitting some threes and you know again these are things we see nearly everyday at practice we just hadn’t shown the fans how good these guys really are.”

The 111 points are the most since a 128-point performance against Texas in 2004 and is tied for the 13th most in program history. It followed a 102-52 win over Jackson State last Saturday and is the first time with back-to-back 100-point wins since a 111-101 win over Fresno State (12/21/1996) was followed by a 122-105 win over New Mexico State (12/27/1996). Tech is now 70-4 all-time when scoring over 100 points in program history.

Tech took a 49-28 lead into halftime with Harmon providing 13 points and five assist and Tyson at nine points. The Red Raiders were shooting 20-for-34 (58.6 percent) at the break. HCU was at 37.9 percent. Obanor had seven points and six rebounds through 20 minutes while Allen was leading the Tech bench with six points and two rebounds. Batcho had five points and four rebounds for the Red Raiders in 10:45 on the court. HCU was led by Long who had 13 points with three 3-pointers. He also had four steals in the first half. Tech owned a 26-16 scoring advantage in the paint and a commanding 18-4 scoring advantage off turnovers.

Tech will return from a brief Christmas break by hosting South Carolina State at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 27 at the USA before opening Big 12 play against TCU on Saturday, December 31 in Fort Worth. The Red Raiders host No. 4 Kansas on January 3 in their first Big 12 home game of the season.

KEY MOMENTS

• Jennings won the tip and scored on the game’s first possession with a jumper off an assist from Harmon before an Obanor putback gave Tech a 4-0 lead to begin the game
• Tech started the game on a 6-0 run with Harmon hitting free throws before a Long 3-pointer for HCU got the Huskies on the board for the first time
• Batcho came off the bench and scored on a dunk to give Tech a 10-3 lead (17:03)… It was assisted by Tyson and had Tech starting the game 4-for-5 from the field
• Harmon hit Tech’s first 3-pointer of the game to push the lead to 15-6 coming out of the first media timeout and was followed by Washington getting on the board with a fastbreak layup… Washington was the sixth Red Raider to score in the opening five minutes of the game
• Tyson pushed Tech’s lead to 22-7 with his first 3-pointer that gave him seven points… Tech was 2-for-4 from beyond the arc to start the game after his shot
• Walton gave Tech a 29-10 lead with a putback layup for his first points of the game… It gave Tech seven second-chance points at that point in the game
• Isaacs hit his first 3-pointer of the game and lifted Tech to a 32-10 lead off an assist from Harmon… Tech was 3-for-7 on 3-pointers with the first basket from Isaacs in the game
• HCU was on a 9-0 run and cut the Tech lead to 34-21 with a Maring layup that followed a 3-pointer by Long… HCU was 2-for-6 on 3-pointers and shooting 38.1 percent from the field at that point with Adams calling a timeout
• Harmon stopped the run with a layup to give him nine points and was followed by Obanor hitting a 3-pointer to push Tech’s lead to 39-21 with 3:39 remaining until halftime… Obanor had seven points and five rebounds after the shot
• Harmon was in double digits with a layup to push the lead to 45-23 then had his fifth assist by dropping off a pass to Tyson for a dunk that gave Tech a 24-point lead (matching the high for the first half)
• Obanor hit a pair of free throws coming out of halftime to give him nine points and Tech a 51-28 lead in the opening minute of the second half… Tech was 7-for-9 from the free-throw line after his makes
• Tyson joined Harmon in double figures with two free throws to give him 11 points… Tech led 53-31 after his free throws
• HCU was on a 7-0 run going into the first media timeout of the second half to cut Tech’s lead to 55-41… The Huskies started the second half 3-for-4 on 3-pointers
• Harmon got into the lane to hit a runner to give him 17 points and push Tech’s lead to 59-43 with 14 minutes to play… He was 6-for-8 from the field with the basket
• Harmon would hit his second 3-pointer off an assist from Tyson and had 22 points for the Red Raiders… He had 9 of Tech’s 15 points in the second half at that point… It was his season-high and one off his career-high with 12:52 to play
• Tyson had his fifth assist on a lob to Batcho who threw down a dunk for a 68-48 lead with 11:52 remaining… Batcho had nine points after the dunk that had Tech back up by 20 points
• Obanor scored on back-to-back possessions to push Tech’s lead to 72-53… Obanor had 13 points and 8 rebounds after the baskets with 10 minutes to play
• Obanor hit another 3-pointer to push the lead to 30 (86-56) with 6:50 to play… He had 22 points and 8 rebounds after his second 3 of the game
• Jennings had the layup to get to 100 points off an assist from Williams… It was the second straight game Jennings got the basket to get to 100 after hitting a 3 against JSU to pass it