No. 9 Texas Tech and Oklahoma will square off against each other for the first time this season at 8 p.m. on Wednesday at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

The Red Raiders (18-5, 7-3 Big 12) won their third game in a row with a 60-53 win at West Virginia after beating No. 23 Texas by 13 last week, while the Sooners (13-10, 3-7 Big 12) dropped their third straight contest with a 64-55 loss at Oklahoma State in their weekend game. Tech improved to 2-3 in Big 12 road games by limiting the Mountaineers to just 24.2 percent shooting for the game and 12.5 percent (4-for-32) in the second half.

WVU was the 13th opponent held under 40 percent shooting after UT shot 40.0 in its 77-64 loss last Tuesday in Lubbock. Tech's defense is currently rated second nationally by Kenpom.com and has limited 20 of 23 opponents under 70 and 10 teams under 60 points this season.  

Bryson Williams leads the Red Raiders with 13.7 points per game after going for 15 against WVU, while Terrence Shannon, Jr. (10.9), Kevin McCullar (10.9), Kevin Obanor (10.3) and Davion Warren (10.3) give Tech five players who are averaging double-figure scoring this season. Williams, who has scored 1,941 career points, tops the Big 12 by shooting 53.5 percent from the field and also leads Tech by shooting 46.4 percent on 3-pointers. After his team-high 15 points at WVU, Williams has now led Tech in scoring in eight games this season, while McCullar has in five, Arms and Shannon in four and Warren and Obanor in two each. McCullar went for 10 points and nine rebounds against WVU and now leads Tech with 5.8 rebounds per game.

The Red Raiders swept OU last season, including a 69-67 win in Norman with Shannon scoring 21 points and Marcus Santos-Silva adding 18 points and 7 rebounds on Dec. 22, 2020. Tech has won 7 of 10 in the series, but trails 40-29 all-time. 

Mark Adams has the best record through 23 games for a first-year Tech head coach with the 18-5 record, topping Bob Knight who was 17-6 at this point in his first season (2001-02) and Chris Beard who was 16-7 to begin the 2016-17 season (18-14 overall). Knight was 23-9 in his first season for the best record by a coach leading the program in his first season.

Tech enters this week already having matched its win total from the past two seasons after going 18-11 (2020-21) and 18-13 (2019-20). The program record for wins came in the historic 2018-19 season where the team went 31-7 and advanced to the NCAA Championship Final.

OKLAHOMA SOONER REPORT
The Sooners come into the game having lost three in a row with losses to Auburn, TCU and Oklahoma State after a 72-62 road win over West Virginia on January 26. OU is currently 8-4 on its home court, including wins over Kansas State and Iowa State, this season under first-year head coach Porter Moser. Tanner Groves leads OU with 13.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 39 total assists, while Umoja Gibson is scoring 12.0 ppg. and Duke transfer Jordan Goldwire has 9.2 ppg. on his resume and leads the team with 82 assists. Groves transferred from Eastern Washington and is coming off a game against Oklahoma State where he had 23 points and nine rebounds.

UP NEXT
Tech returns home to host TCU at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the United Supermarkets Arena. The Sooners, who play at No. 8 Kansas on Saturday, will travel to Lubbock to play on Tuesday, Feb. 22 to complete the regular-season series.