The Sports Xchange
Nov 19, 2017
Texas Tech guard Keenan Evans had 25 points and reached the career 1,000-point plateau in the Red Raiders' dominating 85-49 victory over the No. 20 Northwestern Wildcats in Sunday's championship game of the Naismith Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
Texas Tech scored the first nine points, 15 of the first 18 and 23 of the first 28 to take control early against a Wildcats' team that beat Vanderbilt and played eventual finalist Gonzaga within seven points in the 2017 NCAA tournament.
Tommy Hamilton IV and Niem Stevenson had 10 points apiece for the Red Raiders (4-0), who have won three games by at least 25 points.
Guard Scottie Lindsey scored 20 points and had three 3-pointers for Northwestern (3-2), its only player in double figures.
Texas Tech had a decided shooting advantage, making 60.4 percent from the field and 10-of-19 3-pointers.
Northwestern shot 26.7 percent from the field and was 6 of 23 from distance. Lindsey made 5 of 14 field-goal attempts, and only one other Wildcat made as many as two field goals.
Wildcats guard Bryant McIntosh, who was averaging a team-high 19.5 points a game, had five points on 1-of-8 shooting.
Evans had two 3-pointers and nine points in the Red Raiders' quick start, and Hamilton and Stevenson had five apiece. Evans' jumper with 12 minutes remaining in the half gave him 1,000 career points.
Evans had 17 points in the first half as the Red Raiders took a 41-25 lead.
NOTES: Fast starts have been a Texas Tech trademark early this season. The Red Raiders scored 24 of the first 27 points and led 49-13 at half of an 83-44 victory over Maine on Tuesday. ... Evans has 1,018 points in his four years. He had a career-high 29 in the Red Raiders' 75-64 victory over Boston College in the tournament semifinals Saturday. ... Northwestern's largest loss during the 24-12 NCAA tournament season a year ago was 80-59 at Purdue on Feb.1. ... Texas Tech forward Zach Smith, on the Karl Malone Award watch list, had 11 points and made all five field-goal attempts, his best game of the season.