No. 3 Texas Tech is San Francisco bound for the Sweet 16 after earning a 77-64 win over No. 11 Drake in the NCAA Tournament West Region Second Round on Saturday at INTRUST Bank Arena.

Darrion Williams led the Red Raiders (27-8) with a season-high 28 points and JT Toppin recorded his 17th double-double of the season with 25 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Red Raiders to the program's seventh trip to the Sweet 16 where they'll face No. 10 Arkansas next week at the Chase Center.  

"We are excited to move on, and that's been our vision for this the whole time," Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. "One thing I do know, we'll have Red Raiders in San Francisco. Two things that really stood out to me that we talked about. One was could we keep them off the glass. They only got six offensive rebounds, and one of them was on the free-throw at the end. Then could we not turn the ball over and give them advantage baskets, which I felt like they needed. We only turned the ball over five times. Man, we didn't make threes, and that just shows the resilience of Darrion Williams and JT Toppin, just to be persistent in the way we put it on the block. It's an awesome way to win. We have so much respect for Drake and how well prepared they are. They were extremely difficult to beat."

Elijah Hawkins finished the game with 16 points, seven assists and did not commit a single turnover – setting the program's single-season assist record in the process. Hawkins was 10-for-11 from the free-throw line in a game where the Red Raiders were 19-for-22 from the line. Toppin, needing just 18 points to reach 1,000 in his career, hit the milestone with a basket with two seconds remaining in the first half to give the Red Raiders a 37-30 lead going into the break. He's now at 1,007 career points.

"We watched film and knew we were going to have to beat them inside-out," Toppin said. "Because of the mismatches, we knew we were going to have to opposing play on the outside. We just executed at a very high level."

Tech, which was 13-for-46 from 3-point range in its First Round win over UNC Wilmington, was just 2-for-14 from beyond the arc against the Bulldogs but overcame the season-low output with a 50-20 scoring advantage in the paint. Williams and Toppin matched the program record for field goals with both making 11 shots. Williams was 11-for-18 from the field and Toppin went 11-for-13. Toppin recorded his 15th game scoring 20-plus while Williams passed his previous season-high of 27 in the double-overtime win over Arizona State in a game where Toppin had 41. Williams now has seven games this season with 20-plus scoring.  

"We watched a ton of film the last 48 hours or since the last game," Williams said. "Just putting us in the right spots to go, and I think our staff does a great job of that, and we just benefit from it."

The Red Raiders snapped an eight-game winning streak by Drake which had its season end with an impressive 31-4 overall record. Bennett Stirtz led the Bulldogs with 21 points and eight assists while Daniel Abreau added 15 points. Drake finished the game shooting 23-for-54 from the field, 8-for-17 from 3-point range and was 10-for-14 at the line. Tech finished the game with a 33-25 rebounding advantage and limited its turnovers to only five. The Red Raiders also had an 11-4 scoring advantage on second-chance points.

Tech now advances to play the Razorbacks (22-13) who reached the Sweet 16 with a 75-66 win over No. 2 St. John's on Saturday afternoon after knocking off No. 7 Kansas in the First Round on Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island.

"I'm going to celebrate this one and celebrate our guys being here," McCasland said.

Texas Tech took a 37-30 lead into halftime in an opening 20 minutes which saw nine lead changes and three tied scores. Toppin led Tech with 19 points, surpassing 1,000 points in his career with a basket with two seconds remaining in the half. He went into the locker room shooting 9-for-10 from the field along with already having eight rebounds. Williams added 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting while Hawkins had five assists – matching the program record with his fifth on an assist to Williams to put the Red Raiders up 33-27. The Red Raiders went into halftime shooting 17-for-30 from the field, 1-for-5 from 3-point range and 2-of-3 at the free-throw line. Drake was 12-for-26 from the field, 4-for-8 from behind the arc and 2-of-2 at the line. Abreau led the Bulldogs with nine points at the break while Stirtz had six points and six assists. The Bulldogs led by as many as six points midway through the half at 18-12 before a Williams 3-pointer tied the game at 18. Tech's lead of seven at the break was its biggest, coming with Toppin making the final two shots.

The Red Raiders were on a 6-0 run and led 47-38 with 14 minutes remaining after Hawkins made four straight free throws – the first two after a technical foul on Drake and then two more on the foul. The run started with a second-chance basket from Toppin to get to 21 points after the Bulldogs had pulled to within three. Drake responded with a run of its own before a Williams putback gave Tech a 49-43 lead and three straight free throws from Hawkins pushed the lead to 52-45 after he was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 12 to play. The lead was stretched back to nine after back-to-back buckets from Williams and Hawkins for a 58-49 lead before a Toppin shot made it a double-digit lead for the first time at 63-53 with five minutes to play. Anderson would push the lead to 71-58 with a 3-pointer as the Red Raiders pulled away down the stretch.

The Red Raiders are competing in the program's 21st NCAA Tournament and are now 21-21 all-time going into the Sweet 16. Texas Tech has now advanced to the Sweet 16 in four of the last seven national tournaments, including reaching the 2018 Elite Eight and 2019 NCAA Final Four. The Red Raiders most recently appeared in the 2022 Sweet 16 where they fell to Duke at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The program played in the regional semifinals in 1976, 1996, 2005, 2018, 2019, 2022 and now again in 2025. Tech and Arkansas have met once in the NCAA Tournament with the Razorbacks earning a 68-66 win in the 2021 NCAA Tournament Second Round in Indianapolis and the all-time series is tied 40-40 between the former Southwest Conference rivals.