Fardaws Aimaq scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds Tuesday night as Texas Tech continued its late-season surge with a 74-63 Big 12 Conference win over Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.
The Red Raiders (16-12, 5-10) won their fourth straight game, connecting on 61.7 percent of their field-goal attempts and dominating the glass 38-22 to make up for 16 turnovers. Jaylon Tyson added 18 points, while Kevin Obanor and Pop Isaacs each tallied 11.
Tanner Groves scored 16 points to pace the Sooners (13-15, 3-12), who will probably need to win the rest of their regular-season games and win at least once in the Big 12 tourney to have any shot at an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. Jalen Hill added 14, while Grant Sherfield and Milos Uzan hit for 10 points apiece.
Poor shooting hurt Oklahoma. The Sooners made only 35.6 percent of their shots from the field, with Sherfield, its leading scorer at nearly 17 points per game, connecting on just 3 of 13. The Sooners tried to rely on 3-point shooting but only made 9 of 33 for deep, including 4 of 18 in the second half.
Texas Tech also earned a 40-24 advantage in points in the paint.
The die for this one was cast on each team’s opening possession. Oklahoma missed a layup and a 3-pointer, while Texas Tech followed with the first of its 13 first-half turnovers.
When the Red Raiders shot the ball, good things happened. They connected on 13 of 20 attempts from the field in the first half, including 4 of 6 from the 3-point line. Aimaq continued his recent surge with 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
But Oklahoma was able to hang in there simply because it took so many more shots. The Sooners tried 11 more shots from the field because they committed just three turnovers. If Oklahoma had managed more than 10 points off all of Texas Tech’s miscues, the Sooners could have led at halftime.
Instead, the Red Raiders took a 33-31 edge to the break after a Tyson jumper at the 1:06 mark.
–Field Level Media
