On Saturday afternoon in Lubbock, Texas, two Big 12 teams clashed in an exciting back-and-forth matchup.
Grant McCasland and the Texas Tech Red Raiders welcomed T.J. Otzelberger and the Iowa State Cyclones to United Supermarkets Arena for the fourth game of the Big 12 regular season. The pair traded blows down the stretch, which eventually led to overtime. In overtime, Iowa State outlasted the Red Raiders, advancing to 4-0 in conference play.
With that, here are three takeaways from the contest.
Free Basketball
Free throws are the name of the game, and when teams struggle from the charity stripe, it doesn’t often end well. That was the case for Texas Tech as two of their best free throw shooters, Chance McMillian (91%) and Elijah Hawkins (92%), went 2-4 in their final two trips to the line.
Then, in overtime, junior forward Darrion Williams was fouled with 49 seconds remaining and connected on one of two from the free-throw line. In their final three trips to the free throw line, Texas Tech went 3-6 with three different shooters that all connect on better than 83% of their attempts.
Iowa State, on the other hand, sealed the deal with timely free throws. Junior forward Joshua Jefferson stepped up to the line with the Cyclones trailing by one point with four seconds remaining. He nailed both free throws to give his squad the lead, 85-84. Jackson finished his day off by connecting on five of his six attempts from the free-throw line.
Balanced Attack
While it’s no secret that Texas Tech has a star in JT Toppin, the team has numerous athletes with NBA upside. The Red Raiders had four players reach double-digits in scoring and one individual, Elijah Hawkins, reach double-digit assists.
The combination of Toppin, Chance McMillian, Darrion Williams, and Christian Anderson combined for 69 of Texas Tech’s 84 points. They also added 26 of the team’s 37 total rebounds. Perhaps the most important performance of the day came from Elijah Hawkins, who posted a near season-high ten assists and seven points. If the Red Raiders can keep this production up from their stars, they have a shot to be special this year.
Related: CBB Player Rankings: Two Big 12 League Members in Top 10
Elite Scorer
The Iowa State Cyclones had several stars stand out in their 85-84 overtime win vs. Texas Tech, but none bigger than Curtis Jones. The Buffalo transfer spent the previous season in Ames and was an impressive player, averaging 11 points, two assists, and two rebounds. In 2024-25, Jones has taken off, dwarfing his previous numbers with 16.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, and three assists per game.
On Saturday, Jones was the best player on the court for either team, connecting on eight of 15 shots from the field for a season-high 26 points. He’s reached the 20-point mark in back-to-back games and in six of the Cyclones’ 15 games.
