No. 24 Texas Tech avoids upset, beats Southern Miss 71-65

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Terrence Shannon scored 18 points and No. 24 Texas Tech rallied in the second half for a 71-65 victory over Southern Miss on Monday night after re-entering the poll coming off the school’s first-ever win over a top-ranked team.

Davide Moretti scored 17 points and hit a punctuating 3-pointer on an otherwise rough shooting night as the Red Raiders (7-3) extended the nation’s second-longest active home nonconference winning streak to 52 games.

Texas Tech, which lost to Virginia in overtime in the national championship game last season, had dropped from 12th all the way out of the Top 25 with two straight losses, then lost again at DePaul.

The Red Raiders returned to the poll following a two-week absence with a 70-57 victory over then-No. 1 Louisville at Madison Square Garden in New York last Tuesday.

But the Golden Eagles (3-9) led well into the second half and were within two points in the final three minutes despite playing without leading scorer Boban Jacdonmi and two other players who have started this season.

Texas Tech was also short-handed in its fourth straight game without freshman Jahmi’us Ramsey. The team’s leading scorer has been sidelined by a hamstring injury.

LaDavius Draine scored 21 points and Gabe Watson added 20 in Southern Miss’ eighth consecutive loss to a ranked team going back to January 2011. Three of the defeats have come this season.

Chris Clarke had his second double-double for Texas Tech with 14 points and 11 rebounds and led the Red Raiders with six assists.

Texas Tech went ahead for good at 52-51 on a layup by Kyler Edwards with 8:54 remaining.

Moretti, the only returning starter for Texas Tech, was 1 of 12 from the field while missing all seven 3-point attempts in the first half before a 3 that gave the Red Raiders their biggest lead at that point at 67-60 with 55 seconds to go.

BIG PICTURE

Southern Miss: While the losing streak against ranked teams continued, it was the first time in five such games that the Golden Eagles lost by less than 25 points.

Texas Tech: The Red Raiders made up for another bad shooting night by going 24 of 27 on free throws. With Moretti going 3 of 11 from long range, Texas Tech was 5 of 22 for 23% beyond the arc. They have been above 33% from long range in the past five games.

UP NEXT

Southern Miss: Hosts Tougaloo College on Saturday.

Texas Tech: Faces Texas-Rio Grande Valley in the second of five straight home games Saturday.