No. 25 Texas looks for just its second true road win off the season Saturday in one of the nation’s tougher places to accomplish that goal when the Longhorns battle West Virginia in a Big 12 clash in Morgantown, West Virginia.
The Longhorns (12-3, 1-1 Big 12) head back to the road after a stirring 74-73 win Tuesday at Cincinnati. Max Abmas canned a jumper with 6.2 seconds remaining to rescue the Longhorns after a back-and-forth battle.
Texas trailed by three points with 59 seconds to play and by a point when Cincinnati missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw chance with 23 seconds to play.
Abmas then got a clean look on a 15-footer that bounced off the rim and high in the air before going in. The Bearcats got off a final shot that missed, allowing the Longhorns to bounce back after a loss to Texas Tech in their league opener Jan. 6.
“We’ll continue to grow from it,” Abmas said. “It was really about seeing how we were going to respond. It was a big moment for us. The guys responded right away, bringing the intensity for a full 40 minutes.”
The Longhorns got a career-high 33 points from Dylan Disu in the win, with Abmas adding 15 and Tyrese Hunter and Dillon Mitchell hitting for 10 apiece. Texas was without center Kadin Shedrick, who suffered a back injury in the loss to Tech.
Disu was playing in just his sixth game of the campaign after offseason foot surgery.
“Just taking the jump shots when they weren’t closing all the way out was what I looked to do throughout the game,” Disu said. “I just got my opportunities. It worked out really well for us.”
The Mountaineers (5-10, 0-2 Big 12) have dropped three straight games, including an 81-67 setback to Kansas State in their Big 12 home opener on Tuesday. RaeQuan Battle led West Virginia with 21 points (18 of those in the first half) while Noah Farrakhan and Kerr Kriisa each had 11.
The Mountaineers led 42-40 at the half and the game was tied at 45 before West Virginia allowed a 12-2 run that put it on a 10-point hole with 13:17 to play. The Mountaineers scored just five points over the first seven minutes of the second half and had only 25 points in the second half.
West Virginia shot just 39.2 percent from the floor in the loss.
“The ball is just sticking too long, and people rotate on you and cover everything up,” Mountaineers coach Josh Eilert said about his team’s offensive difficulties. “Even the way they were handling ball screens, we should have had short roll after roll, got out of there and had an advantage.
“Some of these games that have been a struggle (shooting the ball), it’s the same thing in the win column. We’ve got to see one go down and not lose faith in each other and continue to work for the guys in the locker room. Their heads are in the right place. They want to figure out how to get a win.”
Texas has captured four in a row in the series, and nine of the past 11 meetings.
– Field Level Media