LUBBOCK – JT Toppin and Christian Anderson both recorded double-doubles and No. 15 Texas Tech rolled to an 88-74 win over Utah on Wednesday to improve to 9-0 at United Supermarkets Arena this season. Toppin led the Red Raiders (13-4, 3-1 Big 12) with 31 points and 13 rebounds along with setting a new career high with seven assists and matching a career high with five blocked shots. Anderson matched a career high with six 3-pointers and finished with 26 points and 10 assists for his fifth double-double of the season.

“I’ve been asked if I’ve coached a better duo than Christian and JT,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “What I’ll tell you is that I’m more thrilled with how they’re become the anchor of how we’re defending people. JT with five blocks and Christian with two. His integrity of how he’s guarding the ball and moving his feet right now is just tremendous. He’s seeing it and flowing to the ball the right way. I know everyone wants to talk about what they’re doing offensively, but to me, the way JT is hedging and moving and the way those two guys are competing defensively is the difference in our team. They’re competing and playing the right way.”

Toppin has now recorded six straight double-doubles and has 11 this season and 42 in his career. He also made a career-high three 3-pointers, going 3-for-4 from beyond the arc and shooting 14-for-23 overall. “For a guy who scores it as well as he does to be that willing to pass when he has two on the ball, it says a lot about his character,” McCasland said. Donovan Atwell would add 12 points after going 4-for-9 on 3-pointers while LeJuan Watts contributed nine points and eight rebounds. Jaylen Petty added eight points and three assists in a game where Tech finished with 22 assists on 36 made shots.

The Red Raiders stayed unbeaten at home after going 13-for-31 (41.9%) on 3-pointers and have now made double-digit 3s in 12 of 17 games this season. Anderson, who also had six 3-pointers in a non-conference win over New Orleans, finished the game shooting 6-for-11 from beyond the arc and also had two blocked shots. For the season, Toppin is now averaging 21.3 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game while Anderson is up to 19.7 points, 7.4 assists and is shooting 43.1% on 3-pointers. Anderson now has five games this season with five or more 3-pointers and Toppin recorded his sixth double-double in his career when scoring over 30 points in the game.

Along with offensive prowess, Tech’s defense forced 13 turnovers and finished the game with an 18-14 scoring advantage off turnovers. The Red Raiders also owned a 41-28 rebounding advantage and outscored the Utes by a 36-24 margin in the paint. Keanu Dawes and Don McHenry led Utah with 18 points each while Terrence Brown scored 17. Utah finished the game 12-for-25 on 3-pointers and was 12-of-17 at the free-throw line. Tech went 3-of-5 at the free-throw line but shot 12 more times due to the rebounding margin. Toppin led Tech with five offensive rebounds and Watts and Tyeree Bryan had three each in a game where the Red Raiders pulled down 13 offensive rebounds. Bryan had six offensive rebounds and also a blocked shot.

“It wasn’t perfect by any stretch and we can play better,” McCasland said. “But give Utah credit. Their pace is difficult to defend. We had a hard time guarding them in stretches but for the majority of the game for us to offensive rebound like we did and have a solid night defensive rebounding to limit their second attempts was the difference in the game.”

Texas Tech took a 50-28 lead into halftime with Toppin and Anderson both scoring 18 points each and Watts providing nine points and seven rebounds through the opening 20 minutes. The Red Raiders went into the break shooting 8-for-18 (44.4%) on 3-pointers and owned a 21-12 rebounding advantage. Anderson was 5-for-8 on 3-pointers at the half and also led Tech with six assists. Toppin, who was 8-for-11 from the field, also had four blocked shots. Tech started the game on a 12-3 run, starting with a Toppin 3-pointer before Anderson capped it with his first of the game. Utah would go on an 8-0 run and took its first lead of the game at 20-19 before a Toppin hook shot in the lane gave Tech back the lead and him 11 points midway through the half. Anderson’s fifth 3-pointer of the half put the Red Raiders up 50-36. Tech, which led by as many as 18 points in the first half, was shooting 57.1% from the field while holding the Utes to 43.8%. Both teams had six first-half turnovers but Tech had an 11-7 scoring advantage off them.  

The Red Raiders will now host No. 11 BYU at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the USA in the first of two matchups between the teams.

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