TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jaylen Petty scored 24 points, Christian Anderson added 18 and fifth-seeded Texas Tech beat No. 12 seed Akron 91-71 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.
The Red Raiders (23-10) will face fourth-seeded Alabama or No. 13 seed Hofstra in the second round in the Midwest Region on Sunday.
Playing without All-America guard JT Toppin, who tore the ACL in his right knee last month, Texas Tech got double-figure scoring from
five players.
Josiah Moseley had 16 points, Donovan Atwell scored 15 and LeJuan Watts added 14.
Amani Lyles led Akron with 26 points and Shammah Scott had 20.
Akron (29-6) became first team to win the Mid-American Conference Tournament three straight years. But the Zips again failed to reach the second round in their eighth March Madness appearance.
Petty and Atwell opened the second half with consecutive 3-pointers to give Texas Tech an 11-point lead.
Akron got within 64-60 midway through second after Eric Mahaffey scored on a layup and made a free throw to complete a 3-point play. But the Zips couldn’t get any closer.
Anderson’s steal led to a fast-break dunk by Petty that put Texas Tech up 77-64. Petty then drilled a 3 to extend the lead to 16 points. He answered Sharron Young’s layup with another jumper and the Red Raiders cruised the rest of the way.
Akron didn’t score until Lyles hit a 3-pointer more than three minutes into the game. The teams combined to miss nine of their first 13 shots.
The Red Raiders built their biggest lead of the first half, 37-25, following an 8-0 run ignited by Petty’s driving layup. But Akron closed the half with a 10-3 run of its own to get within 40-35 at halftime.
Texas Tech aims to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second straight year.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
