Frigid Shooting West Virginia Succumbs to 13th-Ranked Texas Tech

Sunday, February 8

Morgantown, W.Va.

1 p.m.

West Virginia University

15-9,6-5Big 12

Texas Tech

17-6,7-3Big 12

Texas Tech

West Virginia

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

Frigid Shooting West Virginia Succumbs to 13th-Ranked Texas Tech

February 08, 2026 03:58 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia needed to shoot well from 3-point range and make a higher percentage than it normally does from the free throw line today against 13^th-ranked Texas Tech.

It did neither in a 70-63 loss to the Red Raiders before a vocal crowd of 12,009 in Hope Coliseum Sunday afternoon.

West Virginia, wearing black uniforms this afternoon in honor of the state's coal mining heritage, shot a frigid 2 of 22 from behind the arc and missed 10 of its 23 free throw attempts in its quest to upset the Red Raiders and insert its name in the NCAA Tournament bubble discussion.

That will have to wait another week before WVU plays again at UCF.

The Mountaineers came into today's game ranked next to last in the Big 12 making just 67.8% of their charity attempts.

Today, the Red Raiders connected on 13 of 24 from 3-point range and maintained a double-digit advantage for most of the game after leading 39-27 at halftime.

West Virginia (15-9 overall and 6-5 in Big 12 play) scored the first eight points of the second half to force a Texas Tech timeout, but the Red Raiders responded with a Jaylen Petty 3 and then 10 straight points after two Harlan Obioha free throws to take a 15-point lead.

The Mountaineers got the deficit back down to nine with 8:29 to go on an Obioha layup and then to seven with three minutes left on Brenen Lorient's basket.

Christian Anderson responded with a 3 to make it 10 again and two JT Toppin free throws kept it at 10 with 1:39 left. The Red Raiders missed some free throws down the stretch, which allowed West Virginia to trim it to five on a Lorient free throw with seven seconds remaining.

Lejuan Watts closed the door with a pair of free throws to end the game.

Toppin scored a game-high 22 on 8 of 17 shooting, including a pair from beyond the arc. Donovan Atwell contributed 15, Anderson 13 and Petty 11 for the Red Raiders, now 17-6 overall and 7-3 in conference play.

"You have to give them a lot of credit," West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said afterward. "They put you in difficult decision-making processes with Toppin's one-on-one ability and his passing ability. You've got to be able to adjust and do some different things on the fly, and there were a couple of times we tried to make some adjustments, and we didn't execute those very well."

Four different Tech players made at least two 3s.

Treysen Eaglestaff (1 of 6) and Chance Moore (1 of 2) were the only players to make 3s for the Mountaineers.

Lorient tallied a team-best 21 points on 10 of 14 shooting, while Moore and Jasper Floyd scored 10 each.

Hodge said afterward on his postgame radio show that he was disappointed in his team's inability to come up with loose balls early in the game and he believed that set the tone for the remainder of the afternoon.

"To start the game, you kind of get beat to every loose ball; they got the first four loose and three of them directly led to baskets," he observed.

"I think if you step on the floor legitimately expecting to win the game, you get more loose balls than your opponent. That was the ultimate disappointing part of the game to me."

Texas Tech has now won three-straight against West Virginia.