• Basketball
  • No. 17 Texas Tech Men's Basketball Cruises Past the Islanders, 77-57

No. 17 Texas Tech Men's Basketball Cruises Past the Islanders, 77-57

Details
Basketball

Chris Beard earned his 100th win as Texas Tech's head coach with a 77-57 non-conference win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday at the Comerica Center. Terrence Shannon, Jr. led the team with 15 points and seven rebounds, while Micah Peavy and Marcus Santos-Silva added 12 points each for the Red Raiders who had only four turnovers and forced 20.

The No. 17-ranked Red Raiders (6-1) are now on a four-game winning streak going into the start of Big 12 play where they will host No. 5 Kansas at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the United Supermarkets Arena. The Jayhawks (6-1) travel to Lubbock on a six-game winning streak with their only loss coming in the season-opener against No. 1 Gonzaga.

Shannon, who missed the game on Wednesday against Abilene Christian with an ankle injury, returned to the starting lineup against the Islanders and went 5-for-10 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free-throw line. He was one point shy of his season-high which came in the opener against Northwestern State and has now led the team in scoring three times in his career. Santos-Silva finished the game with three blocks and six rebounds to go along with his 12 points, while Mac McClung led the team with six assists and three steals. Kyler Edwards added nine points with two 3-pointers, Clarence Nadolny had six with a pair of 3s and Nimari Burnett and Tyreek Smith had five each as reserves. Peavy went 6-for-13 from the field and also added five rebounds, two assists and two steals.

"We're getting balance and are one of the highest assists teams in the country right now," Beard said. "I thought we shared the ball today, highlighted by how Mac was handling the game. I think our offense has shown some diversity. We're a work in progress and I like how our guys are continuing to get better."

McClung leads Texas Tech with 14.1 points per game was limited to five points in the game and to single digits for the second game. McClung had scored in double figures in the first five games. Santos-Silva leads the Red Raiders with 10 blocks this season, including seven in the past two games with four against ACU before having three against the Islanders.Tech finished the game with 19 assists on 27 made baskets.

MILESTONE: Beard reaches the 100-win milestone at Tech faster than any coach in the program's history... He is the 17th coach at Tech... Beard won his first game as the Red Raider head coach with a 93-67 victory over Houston Baptist on Nov. 11, 2016. Since then, Beard has led the program to the 2018 NCAA Elite 8, 2019 Big 12 regular-season championship, 2019 NCAA Championship Final and 100-45 overall record. He was named the 2019 Associated Press National Coach of the Year and the 2018 and 2019 Big 12 Coach of the Year. He is 196-75 in his ninth year as a NCAA head coach.

"I just think back to all our players..," Beard said. "Getting 100 wins just means you've had great players."

KEY MOMENTS
Edwards opened scoring with a 3-pointer on the opening possession… He added another 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer with 25 seconds remaining in the first half for a 33-21 lead going into the break.
Tech took its first double-digit lead at 13-3 on a Peavy layup at 12:38.
Tech went on an early 10-0 run to take a 14-3 lead… Santos-Silva had five of those points with two baskets and a free throw.
Dunk-a-thon: Peavy had back-to-back slams to give Tech a 21-11 lead following a Corpus 6-0 run.
Pulling away: Tech responded to a 6-0 Corpus run with an 11-0 stretch of its own to take a 27-11 lead with Peavy scoring six of those points.
Corpus made the first shot of the second half but was followed by a 7-0 Tech run with McClung hitting two shots and Shannon earning an And-1 conversion for a 41-23 lead.
Tech led by 19 on a Santos-Silva putback for a 47-28 lead with 14:54 to play… Santos-Silva had 10 points at that point in the game.
Peavy gave Tech its first 20-point lead of the game with a putback that took the score to 53-33 with 11 minutes remaining.
Tech took its largest lead of the game at 64-38 (+26) on two Burnett free throws with 7:03 on the clock.
Tech led again by 26 late in the game after a pair of Nadolny 3-pointers followed by a Benson block that led to a fastbreak layup.

STAT OF THE GAME: The last time Texas Tech had only four turnovers in a game was in a loss against Kansas State on Feb. 5, 2013. The four against Corpus Christi are the lowest since five against TCU in the 2015-16 and a low in the Beard era. Defensively, Tech has now forced 20 or more turnovers in four straight games.

HALFTIME REPORT: Texas Tech took a 33-21 lead into halftime with Edwards leading the team with nine points with two 3-pointers. Shannon and Peavy had eight points each for the Red Raiders who finished the first half shooting just 11-for-32 shooting (34.4 percent). Edwards hit both TTU 3-pointers with the team going 2-for-9 at the break from beyond the arc and 9-for-13 on free throws. Corpus Christi shot 30.0 percent by going 6-for-20 and were 3-for-8 on 3-pointers and 6-for-6 on free throws. Nolan Bertain was leading the Islanders with nine points off the bench at halftime. Tech has now led at halftime in six of seven games this season.