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Joe Toussaint key down stretch as No. 25 Texas Tech basketball continues upward trajectory
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- Joe Toussaint key down stretch as No. 25 Texas Tech basketball continues upward trajectory
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Joe Toussaint wasn't able to get his usual pre-game shooting routine in before the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals, but the Texas Tech basketball point guard said he was warm enough before hitting the dagger.
Leading by as many as 23 in the game, the 25th-ranked Red Raiders became complacent on offense, running clock rather than offense for much of the second half against 20th-ranked BYU in the T-Mobile Center. That was an issue the team will avoid the rest of the season, but it allowed the Cougars to trim the deficit to seven points with 5:04 left on the clock on Thursday.
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Out of the timeout, Texas Tech looked for an answer. One finally presented itself when Toussaint decided to rise up for 3-pointer over Cougar post Fousseyni Traore. Toussaint converted the triple — his first and only attempt from beyond the arc for the game — and halted BYU's momentum.
"I'm gonna be honest," Toussaint said. "I'm always in the gym, so I'm not surprised that I hit that shot at all. It's just like any other shot that I took. I'm gonna take it with confidence. I'm gonna take that shot every single time. I'm glad that it went in."
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Toussaint followed it up on the next offensive possession with a dish over the top of two BYU defenders to Darrion Williams, who drilled his only 3 of the game.
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In short order, BYU's threat was thwarted and the Red Raiders notched their sixth win over a ranked team this season, downing the Cougars 81-67. With the victory Texas Tech advanced to the semifinal contest set for 6 p.m. Friday and will play top-seeded Houston on ESPN.
Toussaint had a similar glad-it-went-in response to another crucial shot. Back on Jan. 13 with Kansas State in town, the 6-foot point guard was having a tough game offensively, only converting three of his first 12 shot attempts.
Joe Toussaint #6 of Texas Tech celebrates after scoring during the second half of a quarterfinal game of the Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament against BYU at T-Mobile Center on Thursday, March 14, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.
As time was winding down, Toussaint had no choice but to put up a contested shot in the paint. Even while getting fouled, Toussaint hit the game-tying layup, converted the three-point play and finished off one of Tech's three double-digit comebacks in Big 12 play.
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It was almost the other way around on Thursday. BYU's usually lethal offense was rendered inept with Texas Tech's swarming defense and an atypical shooting night from the perimeter. In the first meeting between the teams back on Jan. 20, the Cougars went 13-of-39 from 3-point range but were 7-of-35 in the rematch.
"We knew they were gonna make a run eventually," Texas Tech guard Pop Isaacs said. "We knew they were gonna keep shooting a ton of 3s. We just had to stay together to the best of our ability. Just weather the storm."
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Isaacs was a bit off physically throughout the game, the byproduct of being elbowed in the stomach. He still finished with a game-high 22 points to continue his recent run of offensive success. He entered the quarterfinals averaging 16.5 points over the last four contests.
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Despite the slow finish to the game, the Red Raiders have rediscovered the confidence they lost in February. Toussaint said that stretch was "tough, but you can't dwell on it." The team has since moved on and playing what Grant McCasland said Wednesday feels like the team's best basketball of the season.
Toussaint smirked when asked if he agreed with his head coach, saying "I'm not going to jinx it, but I do think we're getting better every single day."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Toussaint key down stretch as No. 25 Texas Tech basketball tops No. 20 BYU
