In a league where no game is a layup, No. 16 Texas Tech can’t afford a letdown to maintain any hope of staying in the hunt for a top-four finish in the Big 12 Conference.

That fact, plus the memory of last month’s meeting in Colorado, provides plenty of motivation as the Red Raiders get back to work Wednesday night against the Buffaloes in Lubbock, Texas.

Texas Tech (17-6, 7-3 Big 12) takes on a Colorado team that has won two of its last three games following a six-game losing streak.

Colorado’s nosedive began with a 73-71 loss Jan. 10 at home to Texas Tech. The Buffs (14-10, 4-7) roared back from a 24-point second-half deficit, but Barrington Hargress’ game-winning 3-point attempt at the buzzer was off the mark.

“We’re focused on what Colorado has done to get better since we played them because they almost came back and got us on a day when we played well most of the game,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “They’ve played really well offensively and have a lot of different players who can make you pay if you’re not locked in defensively.”

Texas Tech avoided a three-game losing streak for the first time since the 2023-24 season with a 70-63 win Sunday at West Virginia.

The Red Raiders got back to the things that have been strengths all season: shooting the ball well from beyond the arc and defending the Mountaineers well most of the day.

Sparked by Donovan Atwell’s hot hand, Texas Tech knocked down 8 of 11 3-point attempts in the first half on the way to connecting on 13 of 24 — the 18th time this season the Red Raiders made double-digit threes. The accuracy was just as vital, though: Texas Tech hit at a 54.2% clip from deep after going 12 of 40 vs. Kansas and 11 of 29 against UCF.

That contrast figures to be important in the rematch with Colorado. The Red Raiders are among the Big 12 leaders in 3-point shooting — they rank second at 39.1% with more makes (264) and attempts (675) than any other team — while the Buffs are last in 3-point defense at 36.9%.

Colorado nabbed a 78-70 victory Saturday against Arizona State with some of the same ingredients that helped the Buffs get off to 8-0 and 12-3 starts this season. They took care of the ball, with only 10 turnovers, and were strong on the backboards with a 40-26 edge on the glass.

“We did some good things because we had a really good practice the day before,” said longtime Buffs coach Tad Boyle. “These are the dog days of February for college basketball players. Guys get tired of practicing, but what young guys have to understand is that practice does matter and we play better and are a different team when we practice well.”

The Buffs will need to hone in on the Red Raiders’ top two scorers, J.T. Toppin and Christian Anderson. Toppin provides 21.8 points (third in the Big 12) and a conference-best 10.5 rebounds per game while Anderson, who was full strength at West Virginia after missing the Kansas loss with an illness, averages 19.3 points and a Big-12 best 7.7 assists.

Texas Tech’s defensive focus will be on freshman Isaiah Johnson, who leads Colorado with 16.3 points per game. He struggled through a 3-for-11 shooting night against the Red Raiders in the first meeting, but he keyed the Buffs’ 44-30 second-half surge by scoring all of his 21 points after halftime — buoyed by a 13-for-13 effort from the free-throw line.

–Field Level Media

One team will enter the All-Star break on a three-game winning streak Wednesday night when the Detroit Pistons visit the Toronto Raptors.

The Pistons won their second straight when they opened a four-game road trip with a 110-104 victory over the Charlotte Hornets in a game marred by third-quarter fights.

Two players from each team were ejected from the game, including Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart of the Pistons.

The altercation started after Charlotte’s Moussa Diabate fouled Duren. After shoving, punches were thrown. When hostilities broke out again, Stewart came off the bench to defend Duren.

“Our guys deal with a lot,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “They are not the ones who initiate. They are not the ones who crossed the line tonight. … I hate that it got as ugly as it got. That is not something you want to see. But, if a guy throws a punch at you, you have a responsibility to protect yourself.”

“It was an overly emotional game with tempers flaring,” said Duren, who scored seven of his 15 points in the third quarter. “At the end of the day, we would love to keep it to basketball, but things happen. Everyone was playing hard. As the year has gone on, teams have tried to get into our heads.”

All-Star Game-bound Cade Cunningham had 33 points, nine rebounds and seven assists to help the Pistons end the Hornets’ nine-game winning streak.

“It says a lot about our grit and our resilience,” Cunningham said. “There was a lot of emotion to the game; fans were into it. For us to stay together and pull through, this is a great win for us.”

The Pistons and Raptors will be meeting for the first time this season. The Raptors won their second in a row by defeating the Indiana Pacers 122-104 Sunday to improve to 3-1 on their five-game homestand.

Trayce Jackson-Davis, acquired Thursday in a trade with the Golden State Warriors, made his Raptors debut and delivered 10 points and 10 rebounds in 15:31 off the bench.

“Trayce played well, and it gave us a good 15 minutes,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said.

Jackson-Davis became the fifth player to record a double-double in his Raptors debut — the first since Kawhi Leonard (24 points,12 rebounds) in 2018 — and the first to do so as a reserve.

Rajakovic prefers to wait before assessing his new player.

“At this point, I just want to let him be,” he said. “I want to coach him. I want to help him. I want to build him and see where we go. I don’t want to, based on one good game or bad game, to pass any judgment on him. I want to see a chunk of 10-15 games and see how he grows with us.”

Jackson-Davis said that before the game Rajakovic told him to “play free” and not to worry about the plays, but to play hard and rebound.

“So I leaned onto that,” Jackson-Davis said. “And then I’m a rhythm player. So once you start getting rebounds, you start putting the ball in the hole, everything else goes your way.”

Toronto’s Collin Murray-Boyles left the game after the first quarter with a lingering thumb injury and will not play on Wednesday.

Brandon Ingram learned Tuesday he will participate in his second All-Star Game. The Raptors’ leading scorer (22.0 ppg) replaces the injured Stephen Curry. Scottie Barnes (19.4 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 5.6 apg) is Toronto’s other All-Star.

–Field Level Media

MILAN — American figure skater Ilia Malinin delivered his best performance of the Milan Cortina Games on Tuesday, landing two quadruple jumps and even throwing in a backflip in an electrifying men’s short program to take the lead.

Malinin posted 108.16 points, more than five clear of Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama (103.07), with France’s Adam Siao Him Fa third with 102.55.

Malinin, the heavy favorite for the men’s title, did not showcase his full repertoire in his two outings during the team event but still did enough to help the United States grab gold on Sunday.

He looked far closer to his peak on Tuesday, feeding off a loud contingent of American fans as he flaunted the technical arsenal that has helped draw new attention to the sport.

“I want to call it Olympic pressure,” he told reporters.

“Going out there the first time, hitting that Olympic ice and feeling the atmosphere. I didn’t expect it to be so much, and it took me a little while to understand what really happened, but now that I understand it, I took a different approach today,” he said.

“Really just take things nice and calm, nice and slow, just relaxed, and really just pushed the autopilot button and let it cruise.”

Kagiyama paid the price for a stumbled landing on his triple Axel, while Siao Him Fa produced a confident and clean skate to boost his hopes of making the podium on Friday.

“I was a bit frustrated with the triple Axel… my goal now is to perform a free skate that I’m happy with,” Kagiyama, who had upstaged Malinin with his short program in the team event, told reporters through a translator.

“I’m trying to… add more quadruple jumps and increase my offensive power… and hopefully the result will come along,” the 2022 Beiling Olympics silver medalist added.

Many present at the Milano Ice Skating Arena were buzzing in anticipation that Malinin would unleash a quadruple Axel — a four-and-a-half-rotation jump that only he has landed in competition — as it was published on his list of planned elements.

But he told reporters that he never intended to attempt the jump on Tuesday, saying he forgot to change the list ahead of time.

He opted instead for a quadruple flip, then scored heavily for a quadruple Lutz-triple toeloop combination.

He also threw cold water on the likelihood of performing a quad Axel in Friday’s free skate, saying he was prioritizing “health and safety.”

The Virginia native is one of the biggest attractions of the Winter Games and shouldering a heavy weight of expectation after winning 14 competitions in a row and going undefeated since November 2023.

The first-time Olympian looked more comfortable on Tuesday, raising his arms to soak in the roar of the crowd when he was introduced ahead of his program. He then threw some boxing punches towards the camera as he skated off the ice.

NAUMOV HONORS PARENTS

Earlier, Malinin’s teammate Maxim Naumov skated with a heavy heart in his Olympic debut, delivering an emotional performance a little over a year after his parents were killed in a plane crash near Washington, D.C.

“I felt like I was guided by them today,” Naumov, who held up a childhood photo of himself holding hands with his parents following his performance, told reporters.

“With every glide and step that I made on the ice, I couldn’t help but feel their support. They were guiding me from one element to another.

“At the end, I finished on my knees, and I didn’t know if I was going to cry, smile or laugh, and all I could do was look up and say, ‘Look what we just did.'”

Naumov scored 85.65 points and sits in 14th place.

In a lighter moment, fan favorite Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate of Spain laid down his short program to music from the “Minions” film franchise while dressed as one of the animated characters in a yellow T-shirt and blue overalls.

Guarino Sabate earned global headlines when he was told shortly before the Games that he would not be allowed to use the music for copyright reasons, but Universal Studios eventually gave him the green light.

The six-time Spanish champion from Barcelona stumbled on his first jump, a triple Axel, but received encouragement from fans clapping along to the song.

Unfortunately, he narrowly failed to make the cut for Friday’s free skate after finishing 25th, one place below the qualifying cut-off.

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media