Marcus Carr poured in 23 points, six of them in the final 2:20, as No. 7 Texas rebounded with a 69-61 win over host West Virginia on Saturday in a Big 12 Conference dustup in Morgantown.
The Longhorns (16-3, 5-2 Big 12) trailed by a point after a first half when neither team led by more than four points. The game was tied with just under 11 minutes to play before Texas took charge, building a seven-point lead on Timmy Allen’s two free throws with 4:36 to play and never allowed the Mountaineers closer than two points the rest of the way.
Texas finished the game by scoring the final six points, all by Carr, and held the Mountaineers without a field goal over the final 4:27 of the game in bouncing back from a loss at No. 12 Iowa State on Tuesday.
Dylan Disu added 13 points for the Longhorns, with Tyrese Hunter and Christian Bishop scoring 11 each.
Kedrian Johnson led the Mountaineers (11-8, 1-6) with a season-best 22 points while Tre Mitchell added 12 points against his former team.
After a back-and-forth first seven and a half minutes, the game was tied at 11. Texas went up by four points, but the Mountaineers responded with a 5-0 run capped by a jumper by Mitchell, who played for Texas last season, to take a 16-15 lead with 8:46 to play in the first half.
The Longhorns led 24-23 after Bishop’s dunk with 1:05 remaining in the half before Erik Stevenson poured in a 3-pointer and two free throws to gain West Virginia a four-point lead. Carr’s basket at the buzzer cut the Longhorns’ deficit to 28-26 at the break.
Mitchell led all scorers with nine points before halftime with Hunter pacing the Longhorns with seven. The difference in the first half was the Mountaineers’ 4-of-11 showing from beyond the arc while Texas hit just one of seven 3-point shots.
Seth Wilson’s 3-pointer at the 17:04 mark of the second half gave West Virginia its largest lead of the game at 38-33, but the Longhorns answered with a 7-0 run capped by Carr’s jumper to go back in front.
–Field Level Media