JT Toppin had 24 points and 12 rebounds and Texas Tech held Wyoming without a field goal for over nine minutes in the first half in a dominating 96-49 win Wednesday night in Lubbock, Texas.
Chance McMillian had 16 points and was 4-for-4 from deep for the Red Raiders, who are 3-0 and were just outside of the AP Top 25 this week. It was the Red Raiders’ 33rd consecutive home nonconference victory.
Wyoming suffered its first defeat. The Cowboys were led by Obi Agbim with 15 points.
Wyoming took its only lead of the contest 9-8 when Kobe Newton made a long 3-pointer with the shot clock running down and 16:40 left in the first half.
The next nine minutes were marked by an incident at halfcourt. Cowboys guard Dontaie Allen shoved Dorian Williams of Texas Tech after a dead ball whistled when Williams and Elijah Hawkins wrestled the ball away from Agbim and Williams stepped over Agbim in the aftermath. Three technical fouls were eventually called, two on Texas Tech and one on Wyoming.
In the meantime, the Cowboys couldn’t score from the floor and Texas Tech’s defense took over. The Red Raiders wound up forcing 17 first-half turnovers and 25 for the game. Texas Tech scored 14 straight points, including seven by Toppin, to build a 32-13 advantage. The Red Raiders eventually led 46-20 at the break.
Wyoming shot just 26.3 percent from the floor in the first half.
In the second half, there was a moment of concern for Red Raiders fans as Toppin exited the game with 16:53 left and was checked by a trainer. He would later return.
Texas Tech continued to force more Wyoming mistakes and put on a show offensively with Hawkins feeding Federiko Federiko for multiple dunks. The lead was as big as 49.
The storyline entering the contest was the Cowboys squaring off against former head coach Jeff Linder, who left the Wyoming program after four seasons in May to become the lead assistant at Texas Tech under Grant McCasland. In exchange for Linder, Texas Tech agreed to two games between the schools the next two years with Tech paying Wyoming $150,000 for each.
