LIU @ Texas Tech preview

No. 12 Texas Tech lost four of its five starters, including Jarrett Culver to the NBA, from a team that made the NCAA Championship game, but coach Chris Beard didn't want to hear anything about rebuilding. The Red Raiders have won their first four games this season by a combined 104 points and seek a 51st consecutive non-conference home win when Long Island visits Sunday for a Continental Tire Las Vegas campus game.

Davide Moretti (14.3 points, 3.8 assists, 10-of-18 beyond the arc) is the lone returning starter, but he's been getting help from freshman guard Jahmi'us Ramsey (17.5 points, 49 percent from the field, 2.3 steals) and Stephen F. Austin grad transfer T.J. Holyfield (16.0 points, 81 percent from the field, 3.8 rebounds). In their closest game off the season, the Red Raiders shot 34 percent but still topped Tennessee State 72-57 behind 19 points and four 3-pointers from Moretti. "You know I did like our poise," Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. "We found ourselves in a battle, right? They hit that three going into halftime, we're (only up) five, we haven't really been in this situation yet. A lot of positives come from this. We would much rather learn lessons after a victory rather than a defeat." Long Island, playing its fifth road game in six games this season, hung in with San Diego State before dropping an 81-64 decision on Friday.

TV: 3 p.m. ET, FSN

ABOUT LONG ISLAND (1-4): Raiquan Clark (20.5 points, 6.0 rebounds), a 6-6 senior, had 10 points and 10 rebounds against the Aztecs but turned the ball over eight times. Ty Flowers (16.4 points, 13.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists), a 6-9 junior, led the team with 15 points to go with eight rebounds to end his streak of four double-doubles to open the season. Clark had 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting and Flowers contributed 20 points and 17 rebounds with three blocks and two steals in a 92-84 win over Delaware State on Monday.

ABOUT TEXAS TECH (4-0): Holyfield averaged 12.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and shot 41 percent beyond the arc two years ago for the Lumberjacks but sat out last season with an injury before transferring. Another starter is freshman Terrence Shannon Jr. (9.3 points), a top-100 recruit who averaged 14 points on the team's summer trip to the Bahamas. Ramsey scored 19 points in his collegiate debut against Eastern Illinois and tallied 25 versus Houston Baptist two games later.

TIP-INS

1. Texas Tech garnered the No. 16 recruiting class in the nation according to 24/7 Sports this season, and Ramsey, whom Beard called the "highest-ranked recruit Texas Tech has ever signed," has lived up to the billing. He scored 44 points in one game on the Red Raiders' summer trip.

2. Besides Moretti, the only other holdover from last year is 6-4 guard Kyler Edwards, who is averaging 10 points, 5.5 rebounds and four assists but shot just 1-of-11 against Tennessee State.

3. Texas Tech is 53-5 in home games under Beard.

PREDICTION: Texas Tech 87, Long Island 62