BATON ROUGE, La. — Kevin Obanor scored 22 points, Kerwin Walton added 17 points, De’Vion Harmon had 14 points with eight assists, and Texas Tech defeated LSU 76-68 as the 10-year Big 12/SEC Challenge wound down on Saturday.
The Red Raiders outscored LSU 19-10 in the final 7 1/2 minutes to snap an eight-game losing streak.
All five starters scored in a 13-5 LSU run to open the second half and give the Tigers a 46-45 lead with 13:30 remaining. For the second time in the game Kerwin Walton hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Texas Tech jumped ahead by five.
Walton’s two 3-pointers came in the midst of a stretch of six-plus minutes in which every point was scored via 3-pointer or three-point play. Harmon’s 3-pointer for Texas Tech with 16:31 remaining began the streak and it ended when LSU’s Derek Fountain scored in the paint to tie the game at 51 with 10:17 to go.
The last of the game’s 12 lead changes came when Walton buried his fifth 3-pointer, giving the Red Raiders a 60-58 lead with 7:13 remaining. Texas Tech went on to build a 69-60 lead with 2:48 remaining.
Obanor needed 24 points to become the third active player with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. One of the other two is LSU’s KJ Williams and the third is Jayden Gardner of Virginia. It was just last Saturday that Williams became the 122nd player to reach the milestone.
Adam Miller made five 3-pointers and scored 20 points for LSU. Williams had 14 points and nine rebounds, and Fountain scored 10.
LSU guard Juice Hill, who stepped away from the team last week for a personal reason, returned to practice on Thursday and played nine minutes against Texas Tech, scoring three points.
Texas Tech, which is 11-10 overall, improved to 11-2 in non-conference games but is 0-8 in the Big 12. The Red Raiders host No. 12 Iowa State on Monday.
LSU is 12-9 overall and 1-7 in the SEC. The Tigers play at Missouri on Wednesday.
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