Texas Tech Dominates Duke Early & Late To Win At Garden

 

Texas Tech races up the court on the way to their opening basket. Photo by Jason Schott.

In the SentinelOne Classic on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, Texas Tech dealt Duke its first loss of the season in a thriller, 82-81.

No. 19 Texas Tech is now 9-3 on the season, while No. 3 Duke is 11-1.

This was an up-and-down game, starting with the fact that Texas Tech opened on a 9-0 run, capped by a LeJuan Watts 11-foot floating jumper. Watts had seven of those nine points as well.

Of course, this being college basketball, Nikolas Khamenia made a three-pointer to get Duke on the board, and after a stop, a layup to make it 9-5.

Duke eventually took the lead at 19-18 on a three-pointer from Darren Harris at the 9:39 mark of the first half. 

The Blue Devils then went on a 10-2 run capped by a corner three-pointer from Dame Saar that made it 31-23 at 5:32. (pictured below)

Photo by Jason Schott.

A Cayden Boozer jumper with five seconds left gave Duke took a 46-36 lead at halfime. 

Duke kept it going to start the second half, as a Cameron Boozer layup down the lane made it a 16-point game, at 54-38, at the 18:26 mark.

Cameron Boozer's layup early in the second half. Photo by Jason Schott.

Cameron and Cayden are the sons Carlos Boozer, who won a 2001 National title at Duke, and his old man was in attendance Saturday night.

Texas Tech made a 10-0 run midway through the second half, capped by a Christian Anderson tip-in layoff after he snatched an offensive rebound, and that made it 63-61 Duke with 10:06 left.

Duke responded with an 11-2 run, but Texas Tech matched them with a 13-2 boost to finally tie the game at 76 with 2:20 remaining on a JT Toppin floating jumper. 

Cameron Boozer got to the line, but he missed one of two free throws with 2:04 left, and that loomed large when Toppin made a 16-foot turnaround jumper to make it 78-77 Texas Tech with 1:35 remaining.

Isaiah Evans then turned it over, with Donovan Atwell getting the steal, and eventually Anderson laid one, and made a free throw after he was fouled, to make it 81-77 Tech with 1:14 remaining.

Cayden Boozer responded with a three-pointer at 1:01, and then after a turnover by Anderson, Cameron Boozer got to the line with 18 seconds left, but he only hit one of two free throws to tie it at 81.

Anderson then got to the line with three seconds left, and he also made one out of two at the line to make it 82-81, but leave the door open for Duke to win it.

Cameron Boozer launched a three-point attempt at the buzzer, but it rimmed out, giving Texas Tech the comeback win from 16 points down.

Texas Tech was led by Christian Anderson, who had 27 points on 9-14 from the field, including 5-9 on three-pointers, with five assists and three rebounds.

LeJuan Watts had 20 points (10-17 FG), six rebounds, three assists, and three steals. JT Toppin had 19 points (8-13 FG) and 10 rebounds for a double-double.

Duke was led by the Boozers, as Cameron had 23 points on 7-11 shooting, including draining nine free throws, with eight rebounds, seven assists, and two steals; and Cayden had 13 points on 5-8 from the field, including 2-5 on three-pointers, with two assists.