{"id":123629,"date":"2026-03-15T01:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T04:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/899546489"},"modified":"2026-03-15T01:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T04:01:18","slug":"texas-tech-basketball-knocked-out-early-in-big-12-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/15\/texas-tech-basketball-knocked-out-early-in-big-12-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Tech basketball knocked out early in Big 12 Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Texas Tech men\u2019s basketball team entered the Big 12 Tournament ranked No. 16 in this week\u2019s AP Top 25 poll, extending its program record to 27 consecutive appearances in the poll.<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders picked up four wins over teams ranked in the top 10 this year, another program record. That includes a late February win over then-ranked No. 4 Iowa State, Tech\u2019s first away game after a season-ending ACL injury suffered by star forward JT Toppin.<\/p>\n

But when the two teams met again Thursday in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, the circumstances looked a little different.<\/p>\n

Iowa State entered the matchup fresh off a dominant 91-47 win over Arizona State in the first round of the tournament, in which the Cyclones\u2019 defense held the Sun Devils to just one made 3-pointer on 19 attempts.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech, meanwhile, had nearly a week off after earning a first-round bye \u2014 a situation similar to what the Lady Raiders faced last week before their early exit from the women\u2019s Big 12 Tournament \u2014 when a rested team matched up against an opponent already carrying momentum from a win the day before.<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders opened the game strong, jumping out to a 17-5 lead, but Iowa State worked its way back into the game and took its first lead about 10 minutes into the first half, at 20-19.<\/p>\n

It was back-and-forth from there, until just before halftime, Cyclone guard Jamarion Bateman hit a last-second 3-pointer to give Iowa State a 36-33 lead heading into the break.<\/p>\n

The Cyclones continued that momentum early in the second half, later breaking the game open with a 15-0 scoring run that saw the Red Raiders go scoreless for more than five minutes.<\/p>\n

Red Raiders head coach Grant McCasland said he loved the team\u2019s energy early.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to do a better job of helping our team understand how important it is to get after it for the entire game,\u201d McCasland said. \u201cI loved our fight to start. Obviously we made shots, we got stops, but just the, the game wore on us and eventually their, their, their size and athleticism caused us a lot of problems.<\/p>\n

The surge pushed Iowa State\u2019s lead to 59-39 with 10 minutes remaining, and the Red Raiders were unable to recover. The Cyclones went on to win 75-53, eliminating Texas Tech from the Big 12 Tournament.<\/p>\n

McCasland noted the Red Raiders missed Toppin\u2019s leadership in the loss. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were down at Illinois and he’s the one that spoke up at halftime. We got beat at Houston, he’s the one that spoke up at halftime,” McCasland said. “Just got to have more fight and resolve with that group of forwards. If we can find somebody that can do it, then this team can have a special run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the early exit from the conference tournament, Texas Tech still carries one of the stronger r\u00e9sum\u00e9s in the Big 12 this season, highlighted by those four wins over top-10 opponents.<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders will now turn their attention to the NCAA Tournament, as will college basketball fans around the country.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… ranked No. 4 Iowa State, Tech<\/span>\u00e2\u0080\u0099s first away game … pointer on 19 attempts. Texas Tech<\/span>, meanwhile, had nearly a week … win 75-53, eliminating Texas Tech<\/span> from the Big 12 Tournament. … exit from the conference tournament, Texas Tech<\/span> still carries one of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}