JT Toppin scored 21 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field and Christian Anderson notched 16 as No. 15 Texas Tech overcame Wake Forest 84-83 on Thursday night on the first day of the Baha Mar Championship in Nassau, Bahamas.
Texas Tech (4-1) will meet top-ranked Purdue, an 80-71 winner against Memphis earlier Thursday, in Friday night’s title game. Memphis takes on Wake Forest in an earlier consolation game.
Juke Harris poured in 23 of his 26 points in the second half and reserve Myles Colvin tallied 19 for the Demon Deacons (3-2), who came close to knocking off a ranked team on a neutral court for the second time this season. They fell in overtime at Michigan, 85-84 on Nov. 11.
Texas Tech made 12 of 35 shots from 3-point range against Wake Forest, which had been one of the best teams in the country defending 3-pointers entering the week.
The Red Raiders went up 67-66 on LeJuan Watts’ three-point play with 5:35 remaining. After a quick response dunk by Wake’s Myles Colvin, Jaylen Petty’s knocked down a 3-pointer made it 70-68 at the 4:59 mark.
The teams matched 3-pointers a little later, with Colvin connecting for the Demon Deacons before 18 seconds later — with 2:08 left — Petty replied to tie the score at 76-76.
Tech’s Christian Anderson hit a jumper to give his side the lead for good at 78-76 with 1:34 remaining.
Wake’s Nate Calmese missed a potential game-tying jumper with 46 seconds left and Watts converted a pair of free throws to extend the Red Raiders’ lead to 81-77 with 18 seconds remaining.
Petty sank two more free throws with eight seconds left before Harris’ 3-pointer cut the deficit in half at 83-80. Watts made another free throw and Harris tossed in another trey at the buzzer to finalize the scoring.
Wake Forest committed only eight turnovers, but two of those occurred the final two minutes. Texas Tech committed 14 turnovers.
Texas Tech scored 13 straight points to take a 13-3 lead. But by the end of the half, the Demon Deacons were on a 10-0 burst to close within 35-34 before posting the first four points of the second half to create what was a 14-0 stretch.
By halftime, Texas Tech’s Donovan Atwell had nine points and three fouls and Toppin had a pair of fouls. Colvin had 10 points for Wake Forest.
Tyeree Bryan and Jaylen Petty both had 11 points for the Red Raiders.
Harris added 10 rebounds for Wake Forest, while Toppin led his squad with nine.
