JT Toppin posted his 14th double-double of the season with 25 points and 11 rebounds in No. 9 Texas Tech’s 85-57 victory Saturday night over Arizona State at Tempe, Ariz., in the regular-season finale for both teams.
The Red Raiders (24-7, 15-5 Big 12) will be the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Big 12 Tournament at Kansas City, Mo. They will get a double-bye and not play until the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Arizona State (13-18, 4-16) lost its ninth consecutive home game, suffered its fourth straight loss overall, and fell for the 10th time in 11 games.
The Sun Devils will be seeded 15th out of 16 teams in the conference tournament, opening play Tuesday.
On Saturday, Arizona State played without Jayden Quaintance (knee) and Adam Miller (hip), leaving six scholarship players available for coach Bobby Hurley.
Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson had 21 points off the bench on 5-of-10 shooting from the field, including 4 of 8 from 3-point range. He made all seven of his free-throw attempts.
The Red Raiders finished 12 of 33 from beyond the arc — the 19th time this season they have made double digits in 3-pointers.
Kerwin Walton converted 3 of 7 shots from beyond the arc and finished with 11 points.
Arizona State’s Basheer Jihad matched his season high with 22 points, converting 7 of 11 shots from the field.
Joson Sanon had 16 points and Alston Mason finished with 14.
The Sun Devils, who trailed 36-32 at halftime, kept the game close going into the second half, being down by no more than eight points until 14 minutes were left in the game.
Up 40-37, Texas Tech scored seven straight points.
Darrion Williams ended the run with a jumper, giving Texas Tech a 47-37 lead with 13:55 remaining.
After Arizona State cut the lead to 58-51 with 9:29 left, Texas Tech went on a 17-2 run to pull away.
Anderson had 10 points in the run that gave the Red Raiders a 75-53 lead with 4:00 remaining.
Toppin had 17 points in the second half and Anderson added 15.
Their combined 32 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field were more than the 25 points Arizona State had as a team in the second half.
The Sun Devils were 8 of 28 (28.6 percent) from the field in the second half.
–Field Level Media
