Texas Tech Took Down No. 3 Without Its All-American

Illinois never led. Not for one possession, not for one second, in front of 15,098 people in Lubbock on Tuesday night. No. 16 Texas Tech scored on its first trip, built a 49–29 halftime lead over the No. 3 team in the country, gave almost all of it back, and still walked off with an 84–78 win — the highest-ranked nonconference home win in program history, and the Red Raiders' 49th straight win at home outside conference play.

Texas Tech did it short-handed. JT Toppin, the program's All-America post player, is still out recovering from the ACL he tore in his right knee last February. The Red Raiders replaced him by committee and by force: a 43–32 edge on the glass, 18 offensive rebounds, and a debut from the transfer who was only cleared to play last week.

The first half was a mugging

Illinois arrived averaging a mountain of points and left the first half with 29. Texas Tech turned 11 first-half turnovers into 15 points, held the Illini to 41.4 percent shooting before the break, and got 13 points apiece from Cruz Davis and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn in the first 20 minutes. The lead peaked at 22 — 49–27 in the final minute of the half — and Illinois coach Brad Underwood's team went to the locker room down 20 in its first road game of the season.

Davis finished with a team-high 20 points and five assists, his third straight game at 15 or more to open the season. Five Red Raiders scored in double figures: Gibbs-Lawhorn had 15, Donovan Atwell 13 with a career-high five steals, and Damarion Dennis 10 off two three-pointers that mattered more than the rest combined. Follow the game in the Game Center.

The debutant held the paint together

Jamichael Stillwell was not supposed to be part of this yet. The UCF transfer missed the first two games while his eligibility was sorted out, was granted a temporary restraining order last week, and made his Texas Tech debut against the No. 3 team in the country. He came off the bench for 11 points and 13 rebounds in 26 minutes — his 26th career double-double — with six offensive rebounds and a 7-for-8 night at the free-throw line.

"I thought Jamichael's physicality and getting fouled five times was big," Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. "He just threw his body in there and came up with huge rebounds. It's remarkable the difference he makes." McCasland's read of the whole night was simpler: "It was our ability to compete on the glass and battle. I felt like if we could rebound, we could win."

Illinois came all the way back — to one

The second half belonged to a freshman. Quentin Coleman scored 14 of his 19 points after halftime, hit all five of his shots in the half and went 5-for-6 from three for the night. At one point he left the floor feeling sick. He came back and kept shooting. Andrej Stojakovic added 14 of his 18 after the break, attacking the rim until his layup with 5:37 left made it 65–64 — a one-point game, in a building that had been planning a party since halftime.

Dennis answered on the next trip with a three. Stojakovic drew a foul and pulled Illinois within two again. Texas Tech then survived a possession on which Illinois forced three straight misses — and Atwell buried a three at the end of it to make it 71–66. Coleman's last three cut it to 80–76 with 34 seconds left, and the Red Raiders closed the game where they had lived all night: Atwell and Darrion Williams each made two free throws in the final 30 seconds.

How a team gets outshot and wins anyway

Illinois shot 50 percent from the field. Texas Tech shot 40. Illinois won the paint, 36–30. Illinois still lost, and the box score explains it in three places: Texas Tech won the rebounding 43–32 with those 18 offensive boards, forced 16 turnovers that became 19 points, and shot 23-for-26 at the free-throw line while Illinois went 8-for-19. An offense that had been scoring in bunches finished 38 points below its season average, because the first half never let it breathe.

Coleman's night carries a footnote worth keeping: per Illinois's own postgame notes, he is the only Big Ten freshman since at least 2010–11 to hit five or more three-pointers with five or more rebounds, at least four assists and multiple steals in a road game against a ranked opponent. He did it in a loss his team nearly turned into the second-largest comeback in program history — the record is the 23-point hole Illinois climbed out of at Clemson in 2009. The Illini got within one of erasing 22.

Beating No. 3 rewrites the home record book

The history is not decoration. Beating No. 3 passes the win over No. 4 SMU in 1957 as the best nonconference win this building — this program — has ever produced at home, and the 49 straight nonconference home wins now sit inside a 103–1 home mark in those games since December 2013. A year ago Texas Tech beat No. 3 Duke on a neutral floor and No. 1 Arizona on the road. Ranked visitors are not a novelty in Lubbock anymore. The novelty is doing it without the best player on the roster dressed.

There is a receipt for Illinois, too: the Illini won this fixture 81–77 in Champaign last season, so the home-and-home closes 1–1, and Tuesday was payback in the loudest room on Texas Tech's schedule. "This place will not let us lose," McCasland said. "What a great team win in an amazing environment."

Texas Tech (3–0) stays home for Stonehill at noon Saturday, then New Orleans next week, then heads to Las Vegas to open the Players Era against No. 10 Louisville — with dates against No. 2 Duke and No. 21 USC behind it. Illinois (2–1) goes home to Sam Houston on Friday night, then travels to Duke on November 17. Both teams will see Tuesday night again in next week's poll: the Red Raiders took down a top-three team, and the Illini learned exactly how much of a hole their second-half offense can climb out of — and how much it cannot.