No. 13 Texas Tech and No. 20 Arizona meet Saturday evening in a showdown by Big 12 Conference Character in Tucson, Ariz.
The Red Raiders (18-4, 9-2) enjoy their best big 12 start in program history and Wildcats (16-6, 10-1) are bound at the top of the conference with Houston in their first season in Liga.
Texas Tech, who is 5-0 on the road, will try to sweep the regular season series after beating Arizona 70-54 on January 18 in Lubbock, Texas.
“I just love this team’s barley,” said Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland after Red Raiders defeated Baylor 73-59 at home Tuesday. “We continue to find a way to separate when it is important. We have fantastic team defenders. We can still improve a lot, but I love to see our team playing together and for each other.”
Red Raiders limits enemies to 65.1 points per match, which was ranked as fourth in Big 12 which entered on Thursday.
The 54 points that Texas Tech allowed Arizona in the first meeting band one season was for Wildcats, which leads Big 12 with 82.9 points a game.
During the previous meeting, Arizona beat 57-54 with 5:16 left but failed to make the rest of the way when Texas Tech ended up at a 13-0 driving. Wildcats missed their last 10 shots, nine of them 3 points.
“Hi, we were there,” said Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd. “I mean by five minutes to go it’s a five -point game. Plays in a tough conference, you play on the road, you will have a few days like that.”
Arizona has compiled a winning line with five games since that loss.
After going 0-for-5 beyond the arch in that game, Wildcats star Caleb Love made 19 on 45 shots (42.2 percent) from long distance in the last five games.
Love’s performances late as the reigning BIG 12 player this week has helped to drive the power of Arizona.
“I’m really proud of these guys for how they responded (after the loss to Texas Tech),” Lloyd said. “But … we got a big game on Saturday, so there is no song.”
Texas Tech has BIG 12’s longest active winning line in seven matches.
Chance McMillian leads Big 12 in 3-point shooting percentage (45.5) and Elijah Hawkins leads the conference with 6.1 assists per match.
JT Toppin led Texas Tech with 20 points and 16 returns in the previous game with Arizona. He is second in conference shooting 55.3 percent from the field and is ranked as fourth with 8.4 returns per match.
“We can’t be self -satisfied,” said Darrion Williams, who had 17 points in Tuesday’s victory over Baylor. “We have won some matches but can easily lose three in a row and be back to Square One. We must continue to build.”
Arizona’s Jaden Bradley, who received all 17 points during the second half of Tuesday’s 85-74 victory at Byu, is an average of 11.7 points, 3.8 assists and 2.0 steals per match. Love is on average a team high 16.3 points and Tobe Awaka leads Wildcats with 7.9 returns per match.
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