MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia’s Terry Henderson followed up one of his worst performances with perhaps his best.
The sophomore scored 20 of his career-high 28 points in the second half to lead West Virginia to an 87-81 win over Texas Tech on Wednesday night.
“I played with confidence. That was the main thing,” Henderson said. “I came ready to play. I knew that we needed this win and I did everything I could to help our team.”
Henderson bounced back from a 2-point outing in a loss Saturday at Kansas State, topping the 23 points he scored against Michigan last year.
West Virginia (11-8, 3-3 Big 12) needed Henderson’s effort because Texas Tech’s Dusty Hannahs scored a career-high 25 points, making 7 of 7 3-pointers.
Henderson said Hannahs told him during the game that the teams were going to have a shootout, and they did.
“He’s gotten a lot better since last year,” Henderson said. “When guys are shooting like that, you always want to match them and stuff like that but it’s hard to do when you have to stay focused and run the offense.”
Hannahs returned the compliment about Henderson.
“He’s a great shooter who caught fire and I guess I caught fire, too,” Hannahs said. “They won and that’s all that matters.”
West Virginia’s Juwan Staten added 16 points, Eron Harris had 15 and Nathan Adrian scored 10.
Texas Tech also got 16 points from Jaye Crockett, 15 from Toddrick Gotcher and 13 from Robert Turner.
Texas Tech (10-9, 2-4) trimmed a 10-point deficit to 85-81 on three free throws by Turner with 30 seconds left, but the Red Raiders didn’t score again.
Texas Tech saw its two-game winning streak snapped. The Red Raiders were going for back-to-back road wins for the first time since January 2005.
Henderson saw to it that wouldn’t happen.
He finished 10 of 13 from the field against Texas Tech, including 5-6 from three-point range.
“I try to get in a ’zone’ in warmups while I’m shooting my routine shots and translate that to the game,” Henderson said. “That allows me to go out there with confidence and stay in attack mode.”
Texas Tech is familiar with Henderson. He tied their previous meeting on Jan. 6 with a late 3-pointer and the Mountaineers eventually won in overtime.
“Terry Henderson had a great game for them and Dusty Hannahs played well for us,” said Texas Tech coach Tubby Smith. “We just did not have enough firepower. West Virginia deserved to win. They did a better job defensively.”
West Virginia took the lead for good late in the first half and rode Henderson’s hot hand after halftime to break a three-game losing streak.
He made a layup and two 3-pointers over a 1:13 span to push a one-point halftime lead to 50-41 with 17:39 remaining.
Hannahs then made a floater and a pair of 3-pointers. The second one brought the Red Raiders within 59-57 with 12:32 left.
Henderson answered with eight straight points for West Virginia before going to the bench, and Harris extended the lead to 75-65 with two free throws with 6:47 left.
Down the stretch, Turner scored nine points to give Texas Tech a chance, but the Red Raiders’ defense couldn’t get the necessary stops when they needed them.
The Mountaineers were coming off double-digit losses to Kansas State and Texas, combining to go 8-for-40 from 3-point range in those games.
West Virginia did much better against Texas Tech, making 11 of 20 3-point attempts. The Red Raiders were no slouches, going 12 of 19.
The teams combined to go 11 of 14 from beyond the arc in the first 12 minutes of the game but didn’t fare as well closer to the basket.
West Virginia hit its first six 3-point tries and eventually led 20-10, then went without a field goal over a six-minute stretch and imploded on defense. Texas Tech roared back with 16 unanswered points, including three 3-pointers from Hannahs, and the Red Raiders led 26-20 with 8:17 left until halftime.
“I hope it is just because we have a young team, but we were up by 11 and they just quit playing,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “Hannahs came down and made three 3’s and made nine consecutive points. We didn’t guard him, and I don’t know how you do that when you watch all of the film that we showed.”
Staten, who scored 25 points against Texas Tech earlier this month, didn’t get his first basket until late in the first half but made some free throws and helped the Mountaineers lead 40-39 at halftime.
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