No. 13 Texas Tech and No. 20 Arizona meet Saturday night in a showdown of Big 12 Conference contenders in Tucson, Ariz.
The Red Raiders (18-4, 9-2) are enjoying their best Big 12 start in program history and the Wildcats (16-6, 10-1) are tied at the top of the conference with Houston in their first season in the league.
Texas Tech, which is 5-0 on the road, will attempt to sweep the regular-season series after beating Arizona 70-54 on Jan. 18 in Lubbock, Texas.
“I just love the grit of this team,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said after the Red Raiders defeated Baylor 73-59 at home Tuesday. “We keep finding a way to separate when it matters. We got great team defensive possessions. We can still improve a lot, but I love seeing our team play together and for each other.”
The Red Raiders are limiting foes to 65.1 points per game, which ranked fourth in the Big 12 entering Thursday.
The 54 points Texas Tech allowed Arizona in the first meeting tied a season low for the Wildcats, who lead the Big 12 with 82.9 points a game.
In the earlier meeting, Arizona trailed 57-54 with 5:16 remaining but failed to score the rest of the way as Texas Tech finished on a 13-0 run. The Wildcats missed their last 10 shots, nine of them 3-pointers.
“Hey, we were right there,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “I mean with five minutes to go it’s a five-point game. Playing in a tough conference, you play on the road, you’re going to have some days like that.”
Arizona has compiled a five-game winning streak since that loss.
After going 0-for-5 from beyond the arc in that game, Wildcats star Caleb Love has made 19 of 45 shots (42.2 percent) from long distance in the last five games.
Love’s performances of late as the reigning Big 12 Player of the Week have helped to fuel Arizona’s surge.
“I’m really proud of these guys for how they’ve responded (after the loss to Texas Tech),” Lloyd said. “But … we got a big game on Saturday, so there’s no let-up.”
Texas Tech has the Big 12’s longest active winning streak at seven games.
Chance McMillian leads the Big 12 in 3-point shooting percentage (45.5) and Elijah Hawkins leads the conference with 6.1 assists per game.
JT Toppin led Texas Tech with 20 points and 16 rebounds in the earlier game with Arizona. He is second in the conference shooting 55.3 percent from the field and ranks fourth with 8.4 rebounds per game.
“We can’t get complacent,” said Darrion Williams, who had 17 points in Tuesday’s win over Baylor. “We’ve won a few games but could easily lose three in a row and be back to square one. We have to keep building.”
Arizona’s Jaden Bradley, who scored all 17 of his points in the second half of Tuesday’s 85-74 victory at BYU, is averaging 11.7 points, 3.8 assists and 2.0 steals per game. Love averages a team-high 16.3 points and Tobe Awaka leads the Wildcats with 7.9 rebounds per game.
–Field Level Media
