ANAHEIM, Calif. — Texas Tech entered Thursday night’s West Region semifinal against Michigan ranked second in the nation in field-goal percentage defense, limiting opponents to 36.8 shooting during the season. The Red Raiders were also third in the nation in scoring defense at 59.2 points per game. Michigan — with its own lockdown defense — quickly learned why all those stats are valid.
The Red Raiders suffocated the Wolverines on their way to 63-44 beatdown at Honda Center. From the very beginning, second-seeded Michigan couldn’t get anything going offensively. The Wolverines missed the first 18 3-pointers they attempted. That’s right — 18 misfires before C.J. Baird, a sophomore who came off the bench and played 77 seconds, saw his 3-pointer hit the back of the rim and drop through.
That prevented the 0-fer from long distance, but did little for Michigan’s shooting percentage, a paltry 32.7 percent.
“We were told you’re going to be amazed how quick they are and how they rally to the ball,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “They really push everything to the baseline and we weren’t good at that. It was a bad day to have a bad day.”
Freshman forward Iggy Brazdeikis led Michigan with 17 points and 13 rebounds, but he was 0-for-5 from 3-point range. Senior guard Charles Matthews had 12 points, but he was 0-for-4 from the arc.
Sophomore guard Jarrett Culver had 22 points for Texas Tech, while senior guard Matt Mooney added 10.
“We didn’t hit the shots we usually make,” Brazdeikis said. “They did a great job of defending. Give them credit.”
Third-seeded Texas Tech (29-6) advanced to the Elite Eight for the second straight year and will play top-seeded Gonzaga on Saturday for the right to reach the Final Four for the first time in school history. The Wolverines end their season 30-7.
“We came to Anaheim to play 80 minutes,” Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. “We’re halfway there. We just beat one of the best teams we’ve played all year. We guarded at a high level and played team basketball.”
Thursday’s game was a thing of beauty for the Texas Tech, but a total nightmare for Michigan. The halftime score — 24-16 — looked more like a football score as Michigan was just 7-of-25 from the field in its lowest scoring first half of the season.
It didn’t get any better after halftime as the Red Raiders outscored Michigan 14-2 to open a 36-18 lead.
“All of sudden it went from an eight-point lead to a [18-point] lead and coming back against that defense was going to be hard,” Beilein said. “They’re really quick and long and they get their hands on a lot of things.”
A pair of 3-pointers by David Moretti and two dunks by St. John’s transfer Tariq Owens (seven points, 10 rebounds) fueled the run as Michigan missed its first three shots of the second half and committed two turnovers.
Michigan, losers of the national title game last year, came in with the second-ranked scoring defense in the country, limiting opponents to 58.2 points per game. The Wolverines defense wasn’t terrible against Texas Tech, which shot 43.6 percent from the field, including 6-of-19 from 3-point range. But Michigan couldn’t generate enough offense to keep the game competitive.