Petty exploded for a career-high 24 points, igniting Texas Tech's dominant performance to secure a commanding March Madness victory.
The Texas Tech Raiders faced off against the Akron Zips in the first round of March Madness on Friday inside Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida, and advanced to the next round with a commanding 91-71 victory.
Both teams started off firing from the 3-point line, going a combined 8-of-9 from beyond the arc to begin the game.
Texas Tech was able to make a few more than Akron, which gave them an eight-point lead roughly halfway through the first half.
The Zips were able to cut the lead to four at one point in the later stages of the half, but the Red Raiders went on a very quick 8-0 run. The run was capped off by a tough layup from Christian Anderson that caused Akron to take a timeout.
The Red Raiders' lead grew all the way to 12, but an Akron 10-3 run caused the deficit to shrink to just five points by the time the buzzer sounded. Jaylen Petty led the way for Tech with 10 points, while Akron's Shammah Scott led all scorers with 13.
Texas Tech was on fire in the first half, shooting 58 percent from the field.
Petty started the second with a long bomb for the Red Raiders, and that helped them keep their lead right under 10 points for a lot of the second half. It creeped up to double-digits at one point, but it did not remain there.
With just under 10 minutes to go in the second half, Akron cut the lead to four, and that deficit remained the same for the next few minutes of play.
But an 11-0 run from the Red Raiders capped off by a 3-pointer from Petty gave them an 80-64 lead.
That lead kept on growing with some hot shooting, until it had grown to 20 points by the time the final buzzer sounded.
Petty put up a career-high 24 when it mattered, and he did so on a very efficient 9-for-14 from the field. Christian Anderson was the facilitator for Texas Tech, leading the team in assists with five, and also putting up 18 points and four steals.
Three more Red Raiders were able to score in double-digits, those being Josiah Moseley off the bench with 16, Donovan Atwell with 15, and LeJuan Watts with 14. Moseley was also able to protect the rim for Tech with four blocks.
Many understandably thought that the Red Raiders would struggle without star big man JT Toppin after a torn ACL last month and subsequent knee surgery, but the team showed that they can compete at a very high level even without one of their best players.
Texas Tech will move on to the round of 32 to play the winner of Alabama and Hofstra in Tampa, Florida.
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