No. 5 Houston bounces back from losses, beats No. 25 Texas Tech

Jamal Shead scored a career-high 29 points and added 10 assists and paced the fifth-ranked Houston Cougars to a 77-54 victory over the visiting Texas Tech Red Raiders on Wednesday.

Shead shot 12 for 16 from the floor as the Cougars (15-2, 2-2 Big 12) extended their homecourt winning streak to 15 consecutive games. It marked a bounce-back effort for Houston, which dropped a pair of road conference games last week.

After scoring 15 points in the first half to undergird a wobbly Houston offense before intermission, Shead delivered a series of staggering blows that put an end to the 25th-ranked Red Raiders' nine-game winning streak.

Shead buried a pair of jumpers as part of an 8-0 start to the second half that helped the Cougars extend their lead to 17 points, and his jumper with 13:54 left capped a stretch of six consecutive made field goals by Houston, which pushed its lead to 50-32.

Texas Tech (14-3, 3-1) missed its first six shot attempts in the second half, a skid snapped by a Joe Toussaint jumper through an L.J. Cryer foul at the 15:36 mark. Toussaint completed the three-point play as the Red Raiders clawed to within 46-32, but Houston would not relent.

Kerwin Walton paced the Red Raiders with 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting on 3-pointers, while Pop Isaacs added 12 points. Warren Washington grabbed nine rebounds for Texas Tech. It shot just 36.7 percent and committed 14 turnovers, which turned into 17 points.

J'Wan Roberts paired 12 points with seven boards for the Cougars, who shot 52.4 percent.

It was a ragged start for both teams, who were a combined 8 for 21 at the second media timeout. Houston erased the Red Raiders' early advantage with a 13-0 run, capped by consecutive 3-pointers from Emanuel Sharp and Cryer, seizing a 22-12 lead in the process.

But Houston followed by missing 8 of 9 shots as the Red Raiders, who rode timely 3-pointers from Walton and Isaacs, cut the deficit in half. But Texas Tech missed 8 of 12 shots from inside the arc in the first half as the Cougars carried a 38-29 lead into the break. Sharp and Cryer combining for 14 points and made 4-of-6 shots from long range in the half.

—Field Level Media