Texas Tech takes down BYU in Provo

“Our team stayed the course and controlled tempo,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “We came up with timely plays. It starts with Elijah Hawkins, Darrion Williams and Chance McMillian. Those guys just hung in there. Chance broke the game open with a couple 3s. Our ability to limit BYU’s 3-point makes and beating them on the glass is what I thought was the difference in the game. It was a tremendous college basketball game in a remarkable environment.”

The Red Raiders (11-3, 2-1 Big 12) departed the state of Utah with two road victories after also topping Utah by 28 points on Saturday in Salt Lake City. Against BYU (10-4, 1-2 Big 12), Tech trailed 34-32 at halftime and by six with eight minutes remaining but used a Hawkins 3-pointer to get to within two and took the lead on back-to-back 3-pointers from McMillian. In a game with 15 lead changes and 10 tied scores, Tech wouldn’t give the lead back after McMillian’s second 3-pointer made it 57-55 with 6:42 remaining. McMillian finished the game with 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds for Tech which made 10 3-pointers, secured a 39-36 rebounding advantage and committed only nine turnovers.

“I just stayed confident throughout the game,” said McMillian who scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half. “We showed mental toughness to win 50/50 balls and stayed together. Made winning plays.”

Hawkins was 6-for-9 from beyond the arc and also led the team with five assists in a game he played all but three minutes and didn’t commit a single turnover. He was coming off scoring a season-high 12 points with four 3-pointers at Utah and blitzed BYU with his shooting along with continuing to lead the team in assists. He fell just two points shy of his career-high of 24 points that he had last season against Ohio State while playing for Minnesota and is now averaging 8.9 points and 5.6 per game this season. Hawkins scored 13 of his 22 points in the second half where he was 3-for-3 from 3-point range, 4-for-6 from the field and 2-of-2 at the charity stripe.

“My teammates and coaches gave me confidence,” Hawkins said. “They tell me all the time to stay confident and take the shots they give me. Everyone thinks I’m a pass-first point guard. Everyone on our team knows what I can do though. I just put that on display.”

Down the stretch, Williams exerted his will, first with a tough inside basket to push the lead to 65-58, an assist to a cutting McMillian for a 67-62 advantage with 1:32 on the clock and then putting it away with another challenging shot for a 70-64 lead with only 46.2 seconds remaining. Williams, who is now averaging 16.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists, had three offensive rebounds and was 7-for-11 from the field and 2-of-4 from 3-point range.

“We built as the game went on and got tougher,” McCasland said. “To me, it’s just a mindset our guys are believing in. When we got down, I saw a different look in his (Williams) eyes defensively. He’s a guy we’re always going to play through.”

The Red Raiders have now made 10 or more 3-pointers in nine of their 14 games this season after going 10-for-28 (35.7 percent) from deep and finished the night shooting 44.8 percent. Tech was 10-for-16 at the free-throw line and came up with 14 offensive rebounds. Federiko Federiko matched Williams with seven rebounds and also scored four points. JT Toppin was limited to single-digit scoring for the first time this season, being held to five points while Kevin Overton added five points and four rebounds. Federiko led Tech with a game-high four offensive rebounds and Hawkins had two of his four overall rebounds on the offensive end.

BYU was limited to 5-for-23 shooting on 3-pointers and also went just 12-for-21 from the free-throw line. Egor Demin led the Cougars with 12 points and six assists, while Foussseyni Traore added 14 points and five rebounds. Keba Keita had 10 rebounds and Kannon Catchings, Richie Saunders and Dallin Hall had six points each. The Cougars were 3-for-12 (25.0 percent) on 3s in the second half.

The Cougars took a 34-32 lead into the break after a Trey Stewart 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer in a first half that saw 10 lead changes. Williams was leading the Red Raiders with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Hawkins had nine points and three assists after going 3-for-6 from 3-point range to begin the game. Williams made two 3-pointers, the first to give Tech a 14-10 lead seven minutes into the game and his second to trim a deficit down to one. He followed the 3 with a layup for a 32-31 lead before the Stewart shot took the game into the break with BYU up two. The Red Raiders went to halftime shooting 11-for-30 (36.7 percent) from the field, 5-for-16 on 3-pointers and with six assists. BYU was 13-for-28 (46.4 percent) overall but just 2-for-11 from 3-point range after starting the game 0-for-7 from deep. Hall made BYU’s first 3 to tie the game at 20. Traore led the Cougars with seven points at halftime while Hall and Catchings had six each. At the free-throw line, Tech was 5-for-6 and BYU went 6-for-12 after 20 minutes.

“I thought they did a great job in changing defenses,” McCasland said. “Different ball-screen coverages to different looks in the zone. They have great size and length on the perimeter which makes it difficult with passing angles. It seems like there are some holes but they do a good job of covering them up. We played in attack mode instead of zone offense. We started playing how we wanted to play and I thought our movement got better. It took us a while to get to it but it caused them some problems.”

Texas Tech returns to Lubbock to host No. 3 Iowa State (13-1, 3-0 Big 12) at 1 p.m. on Saturday at United Supermarkets Arena. The Red Raiders are currently 8-1 on their home court this season coming into their only matchup against the Cyclones during the regular season. Iowa State is on a 10-game winning streak after running away with an 82-59 win over Utah on Tuesday night in Ames, Iowa.

The Red Raiders are now 4-3 all-time against BYU with four straight wins.