Kevin Obanor recorded a double-double with 23 points and 13 rebounds to help lead No. 11 Texas Tech to an 83-73 win over No. 7 Baylor on Wednesday at the United Supermarkets Arena.
The Red Raiders (20-6, 9-4 Big 12) swept the season series over the Bears (21-5, 9-4 Big 12) for the first time since 2005 after coming back from being down 39-32 at halftime and are now 16-0 at home this season. Tech outscored BU by a 51-34 margin in the second half with Obanor scoring 21 of his 23 points after halftime where he was 8-for-9 from the field and 4-for-5 on 3-pointers. It was his first double-double of the season and the 31st of his career.
"The mindset was just to be resilient," Obanor said. "I thank my teammates and coaching staff for just motivating me and believing in me. It could have been easy to just to put my head down, but it was just that mental toughness and grittiness to keep going. There are two halves to basketball and I know the first half was slow but to God be the glory. We came out playing hard and came out victorious."
Tech is now 3-2 against top-10 opponents this season with two wins over Baylor and one against Kansas. The Red Raiders have beat at least one top-10 team in eight straight seasons and have now recorded 20 or more wins 16 times in 97 seasons in program history. TTU improved to 4-3 when trailing at halftime, is now 82-62 all-time against Baylor and has won 19 straight home games dating back to last season.
"I just told the guys we are playing well, but not good enough," said Texas Tech coach Mark Adams of his halftime message. "This is a really good team we're playing and we've got to pick it up second half in every category and be more aggressive defensively. I was trying to get these guys to realize what an opportunity they had and we were right there. We missed a few free throws and blockouts and a few mental mistakes but if we get those corrected then we can have a great second half. It's not important what I said, it's how they responded. This team is very resilient."
Texas Tech will now travel to Austin to play No. 20 Texas at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Frank Erwin Center. The Red Raiders earned a 77-64 win over the Longhorns in the first matchup and go into the game having won three straight in Austin and 8 of 10 in the series.
Down seven at halftime, Tech opened the second half on a 6-0 run and took its first lead at 43-42 on an Obanor 3-pointer before hit another one to push the lead to 46-42. The Red Raiders took control of the game with an 11-0 run that gave them a 64-51 lead with 7:42 remaining with Obanor once again hitting back-to-back 3-pointers. Tech had also trailed 31-26 at halftime in Waco before earning a 65-62 win over then-No. 1 Baylor on Jan. 11 at the Ferrell Center.
"Kevin just put it in another gear in the second half," Adams said. He was close on several shots and I told the team that's just how this game is going to go, a game of inches and we've got to make up the difference. And he responded so well. You saw him just grab every rebound and hit those shots. Kevin Obanor put us on his shoulders and said I'm not going to let us lose and had a great 20 minutes. He is very deserving. He works hard every day and he really just took the game over."
Bryson Williams added 17 points and four rebounds, while Adonis Arms had 15 points and seven rebounds. Terrence Shannon, Jr. scored in double figures for the third straight game, going for 14 points and leading the team with five assists. Shannon scored nine of his points in the second half and had four of his five assists in the second-half rally. Along with scoring 21 points in the second half, Obanor had nine rebounds in the final 20 minutes to fall just one rebound shy of having a second-half double-double. His 23 points and 13 rebounds were both season-highs.
Williams, who leads Tech with 13.5 points per game this season, now has 1,979 career points and has scored in double figures 99 times in his career. He will go into the game against the Longhorns needing only 21 to reach the 2,000 point milestone.
Tech finished the game shooting 46.4 percent from the field and hit five of its seven 3-pointers in the second half. BU was 11-for-29 on 3-pointers in the game and shot 43.9 percent from the field. The Red Raiders finished the game 24-for-30 from the free-throw line, while BU was only 12-for-21 at the stripe. James Akinjo led the Bears with 18 points and seven assists and Adam Flagler scored 14 points.
Baylor had a 39-32 lead at halftime after shooting 14-for-28 from the field with six 3-pointers, while Tech was held to 8-for-24 shooting and just 2-for-9 on 3-pointers. Tech stayed in the game by going 14-for-18 at the free-throw line in the first half, including starting the game 9-for-9 at the free throw line before its first miss. Williams led the Red Raiders with 12 points in the first half by going 3-for-5 from the field and 5-for-6 at the free-throw line. Arms added nine points and three rebounds, while Obanor and Warren led the team with four rebounds each. Akinjo led BU with nine points in the opening half with seven Bears scoring going to the break. BU had a 31-26 lead at halftime in the first matchup against the Red Raiders in Waco.
Tech played the game without Kevin McCullar who suffered an ankle injury in the win over TCU last Saturday. McCullar is listed as day-to-day with the injury.