“Just like football,” the crowd chanted with less than three minutes to go in Saturday’s game.
It was a 27-point win for Texas Tech football in the Autozone Liberty Bowl on Dec. 28, 2021.
This time, it was a 26-point win as the No. 13 Texas Tech Red Raider basketball defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs 76-50 Saturday at the United Supermarkets Arena.
Super senior guard Adonis Arms led the way for Texas Tech with 15 points and six assists on a blistering night in his ninth start of the season but first in the last five games.
Senior forward Kevin Obanor wasn’t far behind with 13 points and six rebounds, while senior forward Marcus Santos-Silva was physical on defense as he also added nine rebounds and six points.
The Red Raiders improve to 16-5 on the season in their final non-conference regular season game, while Mississippi State drops to 13-6. Texas Tech is also 13-0 at home while Mississippi State still searches for their first true road win.
Saturday’s game was part of the 2022 Big 12/SEC Challenge, where the SEC won six of the 10 matchups.
The win comes despite the absence of star junior guard Terrence Shannon, Jr., who has been dealing with injuries most of the season.
Adams said Shannon is still dealing with the back problems he’s dealt with this season, and he said Shannon could be back for Tuesday’s game against Texas, but it will be close.
First Half: The Army Leads the Way
The absence of Shannon led to a start for Arms, a transfer from Winthrop who had not started the last four games once Shannon got back in the starting lineup.
Arms took advantage and put up seven of Tech’s first eight points, forcing an early Mississippi State timeout with a two-handed jam as Tech was up 8-4.
They got a 10-4 lead before letting Mississippi State make four of their next five shots to tie the game at 12-12.
The Bulldogs stalled on offense after that, committing eight turnovers. One of them led to a crowd-pleasing sequence where Marcus Santos-Silva threw the outlet to Arms, then Arms threw an underhanded pass to fan favorite Daniel Batcho who elevated for the two-handed dunk that caused roars from the USA crowd.
Later, the freshman Batcho essentially stole a dunk from Mississippi State on a block, and that ended up leading to another wide-open dunk for the freshman from France as Texas Tech made six field goals in a row at one point. The Red Raiders went into the half up 37-22.
Adams said you can’t coach height, referring to Batcho at 6’11”, and it makes sense that he is a crowd favorite.
“Batcho should be a crowd favorite ’cause he’s just a nice person and he’s such a great team player,” Adams said, “and he’s just a freshman and he’s got just such a bright future ahead of him…When he gets in there, he’s going to play as hard as he can and doesn’t complain and supports everybody.”
Arms finished the first half with 15 points and four assists as he missed just two of his eight shots and was responsible for 25 of Tech’s 37 first-half points.
“I was so proud of [Arms],” Adams said, “came in and gave us a spark from the very beginning, showed a lot of confidence and made some big plays and got us going. Really proud of him, [but] not surprised. We’ve seen him show signs of greatness, and again, I thought we saw that tonight.”
Mississippi State’s 22 first-half points was their lowest mark of the season.
Second Half: Smooth Sailing to Victory
Arms started off the half with two blocks to get involved defensively, and he wasn’t a huge factor offensively except for a few assists, but that doesn’t seem to bother him.
“For me, basketball is about just sharing the ball, being a part of my teammates and just having fun out there,” Arms said. “Like scoring, I mean I took my chances in the first half, but for me growing up, it was always about being a team player and getting everybody else involved and stuff like that.”
It was just fine as Obanor, a transfer from Oral Roberts, scored seven of Tech’s first 11 second-half points as he helped Texas Tech race out to a 17-point lead in the first five minutes of the half.
The Red Raiders held the Bulldogs from scoring for five whole minutes after the 14:27 mark until junior guard Iverson Molinar made an and-one layup.
Tech wasn’t quite as potent scoring in that stretch either, but when junior guard Kevin McCullar got his first points, then stole it away and threw the outlet pass to senior Davion Warren who laid it in, Mississippi State took a timeout down 63-39.
The game felt over at that point even though there was still seven minutes and 39 seconds left.
If it wasn’t already, a 6-0 run from Texas Tech with 4:07 left in the game did it, most notably an Obanor dunk that got the crowd riled up, as they were all game.
Williams quietly followed up his 33-point performance against Kansas on Monday with an efficient 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
Molinar was the leading scorer on Mississippi State with 12 points, a step down from the 18.4 points per game he’s had this season. He was the only Bulldog with at least five shots that shot at least 50%.
Adams said it was a point of emphasis to stay in front of Molinar and just try to “stay in the gaps” and double team him while also not fouling someone who shoots almost 90% from the free throw line.
Tech outrebounded Mississippi State 28-21, led by Santos-Silva’s nine rebounds. He said it wasn’t difficult to win the rebounding battle because it’s about effort and mentality with Tech, especially as big as they are.
“That was our main goal this whole time was defensive rebounding,” Santos-Silva said, “so I wouldn’t think it was hard, then once we can all commit to it, I felt it was really easy because we’re all like 6’6″ or above. So if we’re all crashing and getting it, it’s not hard for us.”
The Red Raiders shot 62.2% from the field in their best shooting night of the season.
Up Next
There’s not a ticket available for less than $240 on StubHub for Tech’s next game Tuesday at 8 p.m. against former Tech head coach Beard and the Texas Longhorns at the United Supermarkets Arena.
Santos-Silva said he knows all of the new players understand what the game means to the Lubbock and Texas Tech community, and they have the same attitude as the returning players.
“It’s going to be a different type of game,” Santos-Silva said, “but like every other game, we’re just going to take it one game at a time and just get ready to lock in and see what they do good and what’s their weaknesses for Tuesday.”
Adams said that he wants to enjoy this win before thinking about Tuesday, but when they do, he hopes Tech will be ready for a tough, physical Texas team.
And, you know, maybe Arms should have a late-night workout again…
Loading ...