Box Score KANSAS CITY – The meaningful basketball games will continue for West Virginia.
 
The 10^th-seeded Mountaineers pulled off a stunning, 79-74 upset victory over regular-season co-champion Texas Tech Thursday night here at the Sprint Center in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship quarterfinals.
 
It's the first time since the Big 12 went to 10 teams that the tournament's No. 10 seed has advanced to the semifinals, to be played tomorrow night.
 
The Mountaineers will face the winner of tonight's second game between Kansas and Texas.

"We're playing to get into the NCAA Tournament is what we're doing," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "Two down, two to go."
 
West Virginia beat Texas Tech by playing Bob Huggins-style basketball, which means out-toughing the guys in the other jerseys.
 
That certainly wasn't the case a month ago when Texas Tech embarrassed West Virginia in Lubbock, Texas, limiting WVU to just nine field goals in a 31-point loss - one of its worst performances since joining the Big 12 seven years ago.
 
This evening it was the exact opposite for the double-digit underdog Mountaineers, who have now won back-to-back games for the first time since 2018 - Dec. 22 to Dec. 30, 2018 to be precise.

"I can't remember exactly when it was during the season that we kind of got everything in order and started to grow day-by-day, but you could just feel a difference in the culture," freshman guard Jordan McCabe said. "We knew we needed a shift in terms of our practices and all of our workouts and on the court. 

"To be honest, we just got back to what West Virginia does," he added.

"They believe in what we're doing; they're incredibly coachable, and they believe we can win," Huggins said. "It seems like every game somebody else steps up."
 
Tonight it was freshman forward Emmitt Matthews Jr., whose 3.9-points-per-game scoring average probably registered just a passing mention on the Texas Tech scouting report. He roasted the Red Raiders to the tune of 28 points, none more emphatic than the two he scored on a thunderous breakaway dunk right in Tariq Owens' face with 35 seconds left in the first half.
 
That put an immediate end to Texas Tech's 11-0 run that got it back into the game.
 
The Red Raiders were playing catch-up the entire night after getting down by 17 points with 9:28 to go in the first half. Red Raider coach Chis Beard burned all but one of his timeouts in the first half seeking ways to try and get his team going.
 
Moments before Matthews' Jr.'s SportsCenter-quality dunk, Tech had reduced West Virginia's lead to 33-29, on two Owens free throws.
 
After taking a 38-29 lead into the locker room at halftime, WVU rebuilt it to 50-36 on McCabe's foul line jumper with 14:48 to go. It remained at 14 on five straight points from Chase Harler and got to 15 on Matthews Jr.'s corner 3 with 8:36 to go before Texas Tech began chipping away.
 
A Matt Mooney 3 got it to nine with 7:34 remaining, and then Big 12 Player of the Year Jarrett Culver took over. A Culver steal led to a Brandone Francis basket to reduce Tech's deficit to seven with 4:40 to go.
 
A Culver dunk with 3:06 left made it a one-possession game and his layup a minute later gave the Red Raiders a 69-68 lead.
 
Derek Culver put West Virginia back in the lead with two free throws with 1:37 remaining, and then he retrieved Culver's missed jumper. Culver couldn't get his shot to go down at the other end, but Lamont West grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled by Francis with 1:04 left.
 
West's offensive rebound was one of 19 offensive boards West Virginia secured against the No. 7-rated college basketball team in the country.
 
West hit both free throws to put West Virginia ahead 72-69.
 
After Jarrett Culver's tip-in basket, West made the prettiest pass of the game when he drove from the baseline and instead of trying a difficult scoop shot over top of Owens, he handed it off to Jermaine Haley for a layup. Owens committed his fifth foul on the play and Haley's free throw put the Mountaineers ahead 75-71 with 23 seconds remaining.
 
It took just one second for Jarrett Culver to shave three points off of that when he was fouled by Matthews Jr. on a drive to the basket. Culver's and-one made it 75-74.
 
Following Texas Tech's final timeout, McCabe was fouled by Davide Moretti with 19 seconds left, and he made both free throws to put West Virginia ahead 77-74.
 
Culver's 3 at the other end to tie the game grazed off the rim, Matthews Jr. grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Mooney with eight seconds to go.
 
Matthews also made both free throws - two of the 20 WVU converted on its 22 attempts.
 
In addition to his 28 points, Matthews Jr. also grabbed eight rebounds and made a couple of steals. McCabe finished with 13, including a pair of 3s, while Haley added 11 and West finished with 10.
 
Derek Culver pulled down a team-high 13 rebounds.

"I just try and go out there and play with energy - bring energy to my team and play out there with pride and heart and everything else that carried on, which made me go out there and rebound at a high rate," Derek Culver explained.
 
Jarrett Culver led Texas Tech, now 26-6, with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Owens added 14 and Mooney scored 13.
 
West Virginia (14-19) will be making its fourth straight Big 12 Championship semifinal appearance, and it has reached the finals in each of the last three years, losing twice to Kansas and once to Iowa State.

Locker Room Sound