Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn Scores 25 as No. 19 Texas Tech Holds Off Bethune-Cookman 76-58

Monday was a coronation. Thursday was a reminder that November basketball can still bite. Texas Tech beat Bethune-Cookman 76-58 at United Supermarkets Arena to move to 2-0, but the final margin hides a second half in which the SWAC favorites twice dragged the Red Raiders back within six and made a ranked team sweat for most of 20 minutes.

The difference was Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, who looked nothing like the guard who went 2-of-8 in the opener. The UNLV transfer scored a game-high 25 points on 7-of-14 shooting, hit three 3s and went 8-of-11 at the line. It was the 20th 20-point game of his career, and 16 of those points came before halftime, when the No. 19 Red Raiders built the cushion they would need later.

Texas Tech extended its nonconference home winning streak to 48 games. Bethune-Cookman, picked to win the SWAC in the preseason, fell to 0-2.

Gibbs-Lawhorn Takes Over Early

After a cold debut, Gibbs-Lawhorn came out like someone who had spent three days thinking about it. With roughly 10 minutes left in the first half, an athletic dunk kicked off an 8-0 personal run. His first 3 of the night made it 18-8, and his second pushed the lead to 31-14. That 17-point margin was the high-water mark of the half.

The Texas Tech defense was doing the rest. The Red Raiders forced 12 turnovers in the first half while giving away six, and Bethune-Cookman made just 4 of its first 19 shots. The Wildcats shot 27.3 percent before the break and went 2-of-9 from deep. What kept them alive was the free throw line. Bethune-Cookman made eight first-half free throws, and when the Texas Tech offense bogged down, those freebies were enough to stop the game from getting away entirely.

Texas Tech also owned the paint, outscoring the Wildcats 16-4 inside in the first half. Then Connor Teasley beat the halftime horn with a 3 that cut the deficit to 37-24. Small moment, big signal. It was the first sign that Bethune-Cookman was not going away.

The Wildcats Push Back

Daniel Johnson opened the second half with a 3, and just like that it was a 10-point game. Vuk Boskovic scored on back-to-back trips sandwiched around a Jameel Morris three-point play, and the lead was down to 41-34. Suddenly the Red Raiders had a real game on their hands.

Donovan Atwell provided a jolt at the 16:39 mark with his first 3-pointer of the season, a needed exhale after an 0-of-6 night from deep on Monday. But the Wildcats kept coming. With under 12 minutes to go, back-to-back 3s from Jaylen Jones and Boskovic chopped a 12-point lead in half at 48-42.

That was as close as Bethune-Cookman got, and it got there twice. Grant McCasland's group looked rattled for a stretch: Texas Tech shot 30 percent from 3 for the night and committed 11 turnovers, and the Wildcats' bench was carrying a heavy load. Teasley finished with 11 points, Jones had 10 on 2-of-4 shooting and a perfect 4-of-4 at the line, and Boskovic also scored 10. Bethune-Cookman's reserves outscored Texas Tech's 34-17.

The Turning Point: Two 3s and a Jumper

The game turned with about eight minutes left. Bethune-Cookman trailed 57-48, still within striking distance, when Darrion Williams buried a 3 to make it 60-48. Atwell followed with another on the next trip, a 15-point lead, and Josiah Moseley added a jumper about a minute later to make it 65-48.

That 8-0 burst was the knockout. Atwell's final 3 and one more from Gibbs-Lawhorn closed the door, and the Red Raiders got the last stretch in comfortably. All nine of Atwell's points came after halftime on three 3-pointers. After a 3-of-15 first half from deep, Texas Tech went 6-of-15 from beyond the arc in the second.

The swing in the turnover column was what kept the cushion intact all night. Bethune-Cookman turned it over 18 times, and Texas Tech scored 17 points off those miscues while giving up just five off its own. The Red Raiders also grabbed 14 offensive rebounds and turned them into 14 second-chance points. Texas Tech won the glass 41-34 overall.

Moseley, Davis and the Short Rotation

Moseley was the quiet hero again. The forward came off the bench for 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting with nine rebounds, five of them offensive, one board shy of a first career double-double and tying a career high on the glass. Through two games, Moseley has been the most reliable frontcourt piece McCasland has, scoring 25 points and grabbing 17 rebounds in 45 minutes.

Cruz Davis played 39 minutes and was steady again: 15 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. Davis has now scored exactly 15 in both games. The Hofstra transfer got to the line 12 times and made eight, which is part of a larger theme. Texas Tech went 19-of-31 at the stripe, the same 61 percent it shot against Jackson State. Through two games, the Red Raiders are 38-of-62 from the line.

Bassala Bagayoko had seven rebounds and three blocks in 20 minutes but went 0-of-4 at the line. Williams had six points, five rebounds and three steals.

The rotation is the bigger story. McCasland played only eight players, and Damarion Dennis, Monday's 22-point hero, scored five in 19 minutes. DaKari Spear went scoreless in seven minutes. With JT Toppin still rehabbing a torn ACL and no timeline for the 2024-25 Big 12 Player of the Year, the margin for error is thin, and an eight-man rotation does not leave much room for foul trouble. Texas Tech was whistled for 25 fouls, and four Red Raiders finished with four apiece.

McCasland Wants More

McCasland liked the start, not the finish. According to the Texas Tech recap (opens in a new tab), the coach said, "I thought our defensive effort to start the game was awesome." Then came the honest part: "We didn't play well over the course of 40 minutes though."

That is the right read. The first 15 minutes looked like a top 20 team. The next 15 looked like a group still learning how to close a game without its best player. Bethune-Cookman shot 36.4 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from 3, which is not a hot-shooting upset bid. The Wildcats hung around because they got to the line 32 times, made 19, and because Texas Tech's half-court offense went stale in the first eight minutes after halftime.

For Bethune-Cookman, there is something to build on. A team picked to win its league came into Lubbock and turned a 17-point deficit into a six-point game on the road against a ranked opponent. The guards struggled to protect the ball, but the bench production and second-half fight were real.

Up Next: Illinois Comes to Lubbock

This is where the schedule stops being a warmup. No. 3 Illinois visits United Supermarkets Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m., and it is the first real measuring stick of the Toppin-less era. Texas Tech has shown it can defend and rebound. Through two games it has forced 42 turnovers and grabbed 24 offensive rebounds. The concerns are just as clear: free throw shooting, 3-point consistency from the starters and a thin bench.

If you missed the opener, our recap of Texas Tech's 76-42 win over Jackson State covers Dennis' breakout debut and the 24-turnover clinic the defense put on. The full box score (opens in a new tab) for Thursday's game tells the rest of the story.

Gibbs-Lawhorn answered the first big question of the week by showing he can carry the scoring load when Dennis cools off. The next question is whether this group can play 40 good minutes instead of 15. Illinois will not give Texas Tech the time to figure it out on the fly.

Sources: ESPN box score, Texas Tech Athletics, Field Level Media. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: Texas Tech Athletics.