A key battle between two ranked teams in the Big 12 Conference came down to the wire late as No. 14 West Virginia pulled away to defeat No. 7 Texas Tech 82-71 Tuesday night at Lubbock, Texas.

Making a start in place of the injured Taz Sherman, West Virginia's Sean McNeil scored a career-high 26 points. Miles McBride produced 18 of his 20 points in the second half, and Derek Culver added 15 points and eight rebounds to lift the Mountaineers (14-5, 7-3 Big 12).

Mac McClung led Texas Tech with 17 points but fouled out in the closing minute. Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 13 but struggled to hit shots all night, finishing 3-of-14 overall and 1-of-7 from outside the 3-point arc.

West Virginia's advantage dwindled to 71-69 with 1:55 to go when Shannon buried a 3-pointer from the left wing right after Emmitt Matthews Jr. missed two free throws for the visitors 20 seconds earlier.

But the Mountaineers didn't flinch. When McClung was called for his fourth foul on an inbounds play with 2 seconds on the shot clock, Jalen Bridges swished two free throws despite having hit only 3 of 10 all season coming in. That began a stretch of West Virginia converting 10 of 12 chances from the line in the final 1:20, the last four after Texas Tech coach Chris Beard was tagged with two technical fouls and ejected with 23 seconds on the clock.

The Red Raiders (14-6, 6-5) clawed back from nine points down and took a 58-57 lead on McClung's drive with 8:30 to go. Until then, West Virginia had maintained control thanks largely to McBride and McNeil, who had to come up big with Culver strapped with four fouls with 15:05 left in the game.

West Virginia led 40-34 at halftime after shooting 48.3 percent (14-of-29), with McNeil supplying 15 points, including three 3-pointers. Culver had notched 12 points and six rebounds in the opening period.

--Field Level Media