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Texas Tech earns massive nonconference win, uspets Duke at Madison Square Garden

IMG_0985by: Griffin McVeigh12/21/25griffin_mcveigh

College basketball produced an incredible Saturday slate for fans out there. Madison Square Garden hosted what could be argued as the main event, welcoming the Duke Blue Devils and Texas Tech Red Raiders to town. A familiar venue for Duke throughout the years, plenty in New York City showed up to support Jon Scheyer‘s team.

However, those fans went home disappointed with the result. Texas Tech came out on top with a massive nonconference win, one they will take all the way to Selection Sunday. Head coach Grant McCasland continues to put together a great resume before entering the dangerous waters known as the Big 12.

As usual, a great performance from JT Toppin was a big reason why Texas Tech found success. He finished with a double-double thanks to 19 points and 10 rebounds. Toppin enjoyed a great shooting night when putting up those scoring numbers, making eight of 13 shots from the field.

Two other Red Raider players were in double figures, led by Christian Anderson with 27 points. LeJuan Watts got involved in the part as too, getting 20 points. Huge performances from the trio in a game where Texas Tech put up 82.

The overall record in Lubbock now sits at 9-3. Texas Tech has won five out of its last six but there is no doubt about which one is the biggest. Duke projects to be an incredibly highly seeded team on Selection Sunday when the NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed. This is a great one to have in the back pocket when looking to help your own case.

As for those Blue Devils, it’s the first time this season they have lost. They were 11-0 heading into the night after playing a monster schedule. Tests after test have come for Duke, passing all of them until this point. Scheyer finds his team facing some adversity for the first time moving forward.

ACC play begins on New Year’s Eve, heading to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech. The grind of a conference schedule can be brutal at times. Duke positioned itself well over the past two months to be ready for what is about to come.

Texas Tech will wait until the calendar flips over before dipping into the Big 12 pool. Winthrop comes to West Texas next Sunday out of the holiday — and you know the momentum carrying over is going to be real.