LUBBOCK, Texas – The Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball team (11-19, 2-17 Big 12) took the trip to Lubbock, Texas, Wednesday to face the No. 9 Texas Tech Red Raiders (23-7, 14-5 Big 12), resulting in a 91-75 loss. The Red Raiders shot remarkably from deep and the Buffs simply couldn’t keep up.
Colorado began the game by winning the tip-off, one of the team’s only highlights of the night, as the next five minutes resulted in a slump. The Buffaloes found themselves down 12-2 early after a lights-out start from deep for Texas Tech, forcing CU into an early timeout. The run gave the Red Raiders a comfortable lead that they kept for the rest of the night.
The Buffs’ 3-point shooting struggles stuck with them from their prior game against Kansas State. In that affair, they shot a woeful 39.3% from the field and only made four of their 23 shots from three.
Against Texas Tech, the story didn’t change. CU shot the ball from deep 13 times to TTU’s 33 and only made three of them.
For the black and gold, they have been a semi-streaky team throughout the year. They can get hot quickly and string points together easily with stops. On the flip side, they also have plenty of ice-cold stretches from the field.
Colorado had the game tight a couple of times in the first half, first at 12-10, then at 25-22, and once again late in the half at 39-33. Texas Tech responded to all of those runs by quickly building immediate leads.
For the Red Raiders, JT Toppin led the scoring with 30 points, his third 30+ scoring night of the season. Toppin shot 2-for-2 from deep and grabbed 14 boards to secure a double-double.
TTU also had four other scorers in double-digits, and the team made 16 of its 33 threes on the night, shooting 10-17 from deep in the first half alone.
For the Buffaloes, their lack of star power showed Wednesday night. No Buff had more than 13 points in the contest, but four players put up double-digit efforts.
Bangot Dak has been improving well and finding his role throughout the season, and Wednesday was no different. Dak logged 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting along with four rebounds.
When the Buffs were able to string together a run, they looked very efficient running up and down the floor, but they couldn’t stop Texas Tech from knocking down threes.
Defensively, Colorado was efficient when they forced the Red Raiders to take shots late in the shot clock. However, Texas Tech found ways to make open threes to make up for missed possessions, unlike Colorado.
Colorado will host its final game of the season on Saturday when the TCU Horned Frogs (16-14, 9-10 Big 12) come to Boulder for Senior Day. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. MT (ESPN+).
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