De’Vion Harmon lays on the floor following Texas Tech’s 74-67 victory. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
Kevin Obanor talks to a fan following Texas Tech’s victory. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
A fan holding a sign asking De’Vion Harmon for over 13.5 points for his bet to hit. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
Fans holding a sign making fun of Matthew McConaughey. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
A fan holds a sign for Daniel Batcho. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
Kevin Obanor soaks in the atmosphere before tip-off. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
De’Vion Harmon stares down Tyrese Hunter before driving towards the basked. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
D’Maurian Williams runs towards Texas’s side after making a three pointer. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
Elijah Fisher extends and goes for two. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
De’Vion Harmon and the fans celebrate a three pointer. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
The student section swag surfs during a full timeout. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
De’Vion Harmon and Pop Isaacs jump up and high five after a buzzer beater 3 pointer to end the first half. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
Coach Mark Adams talks to Kevin Obanor before making a substitution. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
Fardaws Aimaq throws down a dunk. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
Kevin Obanor throws a dunk down. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
Fardaws Aimaq rushes back towards the bench after Texas Tech gains possesion with under 20 seconds left. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
Raider Red gets hyped following Texas Tech’s 74-67 win over Texas. (Photo by Andrew Watters) 
Fans storm the court following Texas Tech’s win. (Photo by Andrew Watters)
Texas Tech men’s basketball is not what they were last year.
They’re not going to go 18-0 at home. They’re probably not making the NCAA Tournament, much less the Sweet 16. They lost to the Texas Longhorns in Austin earlier this season, and the United Supermarkets Arena crowd wasn’t over capacity to watch them play the Longhorns on Monday.
For a little over two hours, it didn’t really matter.
The crowd was still rocking and extremely loud to help the Red Raiders (14-12, 3-10 Big 12) upset the No. 6 Longhorns (20-6, 9-4 Big 12) 74-67 Monday in Lubbock to get their second straight win, the first time they’ve done that in Big 12 play this season.
Tech outscored Texas in the paint 36-18 while also outshooting them from the three-point line (50%-41%).
Super-senior Kevin Obanor started the scoring and finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
But, it was senior De’Vion Harmon who led the way with a career-high 25 points, 21 of them in the first half.
Obanor and Fardaws Aimaq both said Harmon was a “bad boy” as his energy was so important, and Obanor said to not give him the ball and let him do his thing when he’s playing like that would be a disservice.
Aimaq was playing his second game back after reaggravating his foot injury that kept him out most of the season before he played three games. He finished with 12 points, 10 of them in the second half where he shot 5-for-6, and eight rebounds.
He said he’s playing hard in part for Obanor, who is in his final stretch of college basketball. He also said playing is getting a little easier with time, and two days off from Tech head coach Mark Adams helped.
“I had a conversation with my father before the game when we played K-State,” Aimaq said. “And it was just, he told me, ‘Your feel’s going to be off, your touch is going to be off for a couple games. Play as hard as you can.’ That’s really what I’ve tried to embody the last couple of games.”
Aimaq said he loved seeing young players like Elijah Fisher, Lamar Washington, Robert Jennings and KJ Allen, players that all made big plays Monday, grow in the last five months while he has been hurt and step up at the right time.
Texas’s Marcus Carr had 23 points of his own along with six assists to push UT close to Tech, but it just wasn’t enough.
Texas Tech responded in big moments and fought every time UT pushed them to the limit or even took the lead back. They continued a pattern from the Kansas State game Saturday where the Wildcats got back into the game, but Tech responded time after time to keep the lead for the last 22 minutes.
Some say basketball is a game of runs, and the start of Monday’s game epitomized it. A 7-0 Tech run was followed by a 10-0 Texas run, and the game alternated between shootout and defensive slugfest for the rest of the first half.
Tech got the lead back a few times but lost it in the back-and-forth half, and it got tight again with a Carr three-pointer with 1:34 left in the half to put Tech up 37-35.
The Red Raiders responded by finishing the half on another 7-0 run solely from Harmon, including a buzzer-beater triple to end the half with a 44-35 lead.
After Tech got a lead of as much as 13 points, Texas had energy of their own from Carr, then Arterio Morris got the fastbreak dunk to cut the Tech lead to five points.
A combination of a Tech timeout and media timeout within 30 seconds of each other killed the momentum as Harmon got back to his first-half ways, but the Longhorns stayed in it, eventually tying the game at 64-64 with a Dylan Disu three with 4:16 to go.
Just as they did against K-State, they responded again, this time with an Obanor two-handed dunk, then Aimaq tipped a missed shot, then Obanor blocked a shot and got another dunk to light the crowd on fire and go up 70-64.
Harmon had the dagger layup with 34 seconds left, and the defense held strong to get the victory.
“De’Vion had a great start for us, and that kicked us off to say, ‘Look, we can win this game,’” Adams said. “And he’s a veteran, plays with a lot of confidence and he wanted to win and made big shots early and then again late like he always does, he’s a good closer for us.”
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Terry said the crowd was raucous, but he attributed it to the fact they’re Texas.
“We watch their games, and it’s not as much of a raucous crowd,” Terry said. “It made a difference for their team, no doubt about it. We do play in front of big crowds every night.”
Obanor admitted it wasn’t quite last year against Texas, but he said the crowd did a great job, and he appreciates seeing fan support through the highs and lows this team has had.
However, he said the people on the team are truly all they have, and that’s what matters.
Adams said it means a lot to have the student body still behind them, and it especially helps a young team.
“Coach always uses that analogy of a boxing match, 18 rounds, and you get beat up eight times,” Obanor said, referencing how they started 0-8 in the Big 12. “But it speaks more to the character and the people that we are and get back up because I guarantee you a lot of teams would have folded. They would’ve cared about stats, worried about going to the next level, they would have quit.”
Obanor said it would be wrong to quit for the Texas Tech name, for the people before them, and this team hasn’t quit all season.
They’ll have to leave a lot of them behind for their next game, however, as the Red Raiders will try to make it three wins in a row when they go to Morgantown to play West Virginia (15-10, 4-8 Big 12) at 11 a.m. Saturday.
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