No. 16 Texas Tech Beats No. 3 Illinois 84-78 for the Highest-Ranked Nonconference Home Win in Program History
A 20-point halftime lead, a one-point game with 5:37 left, and two straight 3-pointers to survive it: Cruz Davis scored 20, Jamichael Stillwell debuted with 11 and 13, and Lubbock's 49-game nonconference home streak now owns a win over the No. 3 team in the country.
Texas Tech did the hard part early and the brave part late. The No. 16 Red Raiders beat No. 3 Illinois 84-78 on Tuesday night at United Supermarkets Arena, Texas Tech Athletics reported - the highest-ranked nonconference home win in program history, surpassing a victory over No. 4 SMU in 1957, and the 49th straight nonconference home win for a program that has made Lubbock one of the hardest road stops in the sport.
The first half was a rout built on the glass and on Illinois mistakes. Tech led 49-29 at the break behind a 23-15 rebounding advantage and a 15-2 edge in points off turnovers, with Cruz Davis and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn scoring 13 apiece in the half. Davis finished with a game-high 20 points and five assists. Jamichael Stillwell, making his Texas Tech debut after transferring from UCF, delivered the game's physical signature - 11 points and 13 rebounds, six of them offensive, in his 26th career double-double - and Donovan Atwell added 13 points, three 3-pointers and a career-high five steals. Tech won the rebounding battle 43-32, forced 16 turnovers and held the Illini 38 points below their season scoring average.
Illinois, to its credit, nearly took it anyway. Down by as many as 22, the Illini (2-1) rode Quentin Coleman's 19 points and Andrej Stojakovic's 18 all the way back to a one-point game - 65-64 on Stojakovic's layup with 5:37 to play, before a crowd of 15,098. The answer came from Tech's depth: Damarion Dennis hit a 3-pointer on the next trip, Atwell buried another within a minute to make it 71-66, and the Red Raiders closed it at the line, where they went 23-of-26 against Illinois' 8-of-19. "This place will not let us lose," head coach Grant McCasland said. "It was our ability to compete on the glass and battle. I felt like if we could rebound, we could win."
The win evens the home-and-home series at 1-1 after Illinois won 81-77 in Champaign last season, and it lands a day after the same university's football team took the No. 12 spot - and the first-team-out label - in the College Football Playoff rankings this station filed this evening. Tech (3-0) stays home for Stonehill at noon Saturday and New Orleans next week before the Players Era in Las Vegas, where No. 10 Louisville waits. November statements do not win March, but a wire-to-wire win over the No. 3 team in the country is the kind that follows a team all season.
