Dallas ? Bill Parcells provided the pregame talk, and Mikey Marshall gave Texas Tech the needed spark on the court.

Marshall scored a career-high 23 points on 8-of-9 shooting and the Red Raiders, after hearing from the Dallas Cowboys coach, a longtime friend of Bob Knight, beat Colorado, 79-69, Friday in the Big 12 Conference tournament.

“I’m not sure that we’ve had a kid since I’ve been at Tech that has played a singular game as well as Mike played this one,” Knight said.

During the regular season, when Marshall’s role was to come off the bench to provide a spark for short spurts, he averaged just 3.5 points a game. His previous high was 14 in back-to-back games in January.

Marshall made four three-pointers against Colorado, including one in a 12-3 run in the second half that broke open a tight game and put Texas Tech (22-9) ahead to stay.

“We let him have a career day against us,” said Blair Wilson, who led Colorado with 16 points. “Whenever you allow a so-called role player to do that, you’re in trouble.”

Ronald Ross also scored a career high with 25 points, but he was coming off a 23-point game in the regular-season finale and had twice scored 24 this season. Ross and Marshall each had seven rebounds.

Jarrius Jackson’s slam dunk with 15:20 left gave Tech a 42-41 lead, and Ross followed with a three-pointer. Andre Emmett, the Big 12 career scoring leader, then scored four of his 13 points on a long jumper and a one-handed swoop shot in traffic before Marshall’s three-pointer made it 52-44.

“I’m pretty much a role player and Andre is our go-to guy. We just need people to step up tonight,” Marshall said. “Not many teams expect as much as I did tonight.”

Colorado's David Harrison, right, drives against Texas Tech's Robert Tomaszek. The Red Raiders beat the Buffaloes, 79-69, Friday in Dallas.

Colorado (18-10), which had won five of its last six games, including an 85-75 win over Tech last month, didn’t get closer than four after that.

Marcus Hall added 14 points for Colorado, and Glean Eddy had 10.

Even if they don’t win the Big 12, the Red Raiders seem certain for their second NCAA appearance in three seasons under Knight. They went to the NIT semifinal last season.

Parcells sat behind the Texas Tech bench during the game. But his real impact came in the locker room before the game.

“Nobody in my lifetime could give our team a pregame talk that could have been any better than Bill Parcells made,” Knight said. “We had a little extra advantage today. What he talked about was really good.”

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