San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
JONES HITS WINNING 3-POINTER FOR TEXAS
Three years to the day since Texas coach Shaka Smart told his players that Andrew Jones had been diagnosed with leukemia, the junior guard put his latest stamp on what is turning into a special season for the Longhorns.
Jones hit a 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds left to lift the fourthranked Longhorns to a 72-70 victory over No. 14 West Virginia on Saturday in Morgantown, W.VA.
Courtney Ramey drove into the lane among four defenders before tossing the ball to Jones in the right corner for an uncontested shot after West Virginia’s Emmitt Matthews missed two free throws with 11 seconds left.
On Jan. 9, 2018, Smart told his players that Jones had been diagnosed with leukemia. Jones missed most of the next two seasons and completed his cancer treatments in September 2019.
On Saturday, Jones went over the 1,000-point mark for his career, joined Smart and his teammates in a postgame locker room dance, then got on Twitter to thank God “for even allowing me to be here and play the game that I love.”
He also thanked his teammates and supporters. “Let’s keep it going,” Jones wrote.
Smart said he still gets emotional watching Jones play.
“He’s come so far,” Smart said. “I don’t know a lot of guys that would be able to do what he did from the standpoint of scraping and clawing his way back. The one thing that is just so impressive about Andrew from the beginning is, after he was diagnosed, he kept saying: ‘I’m going to come back and play. I’m going to come back and play.’
“I think the rest of us were just like: ‘We’ll be happy if we can just get you back healthy. Forget playing right now.’ But I think that really helped him from a motivational standpoint.”
Ramey scored 19 points for Texas (10-1, 4-0 Big 12), which had to come from nine points down in the second half. Jones finished with 16 points, Matt Coleman had 13 and freshman Greg Brown had 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Texas scored the final seven points of the game and avenged last year’s 38-point loss at West Virginia, which was the fifthworst loss in program history and the worst under Smart.
Taz Sherman scored 17 points, Sean Mcneil added 14 points and Derek Culver had his seventh double-double of the season, with 14 points and 16 rebounds, for the Mountaineers (9-4, 2-3).
West Virginia was poised to add to a 54-45 lead midway through the second half, then Texas got tough on defense.
“We’re not as athletic as what they were,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “They make up for a lot of mistakes with their athleticism.”
Coleman blocked Sherman’s layup attempt at the rim. Culver, trying to fight through a pair of defenders, missed another layup on the Mountaineers’ next possession. Kai Jones then blocked another Culver layup attempt and Jones scored at the other end of the court as part of an 8-0 run that tied the score at 57 with 8:36 left.
“I thought there was a lot of contact in the post,” Huggins said. “Those are shots Derek normally makes.”
The Longhorns, who trailed most of the game, didn’t retake the lead until the final seconds.
No. 2 Baylor 67, TCU 49: Jared Butler scored a season-high 28 points and visiting Baylor (11-0, 4-0 Big 12) stayed undefeated with another another double-digit win even after trailing at halftime for the first time this season, to TCU (9-4, 2-3).
No. 6 Kansas 63, Oklahoma 59: David Mccormack hit the clinching short hook shot with 12.8 seconds to go, giving the Kansas (11-2, 4-1 Big 12) big man 17 points against visiting Oklahoma (6-4, 2-3).
Ochai Agbaji added 14 points and Jalen Wilson had nine points and 11 rebounds, helping Kansas avoid back-toback losses in Allen Fieldhouse for the first time since the first season under Roy Williams in 1988-89.
No. 7 Creighton 97, St. John’s 79: Denzel Mahoney scored a season-high 24 points to lead six players in double figures with star Marcus Zegarowski out of the lineup, and host Creighton (10-2, 6-1) pulled away early in a victory over St. John’s (6-6, 1-5).
No. 9 Tennessee 68, Texas A&M 54: Santiago Vescov scored a career-high 23 points, including six 3-pointers, and visiting Tennessee (9-1, 3-1 Southeastern) beat Texas A&M (6-4, 1-3).
No. 11 Houston 71, Tulane 50: Marcus Sasser scored 20 of his career-high 28 points in the first half to lead host Houston (10-1, 5-1 American Athletic) past Tulane (6-3, 1-3).
Ohio State 79, No. 15 Rutgers 68: Duane Washington Jr. scored 17 points and visiting Ohio State (9-3, 3-3 Big Ten) closed the first half with a big run to beat Rutgers (7-4, 3-4).
No. 18 Texas Tech 91, Iowa State 64: Kyler Edwards scored 16 of his 19 points in the first half as Texas Tech (10-3, 3-2 Big 12) built a huge lead and breezed past host Iowa State (2-7, 0-5).
No. 21 Duke 79, Wake Forest 68: Matthew Hurt scored a career-high 26 points to help Duke (5-2, 3-0 Atlantic Coast) beat visiting Wake Forest (3-3, 0-3) in Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski’s return from a onegame absence due to COVID-19 protocols.
No. 22 Virginia 61, Boston College 49: Jay Huff matched his career high with 18 points, adding eight rebounds to lead visiting Virginia (6-2, 3-0 ACC) over Boston College (2-9, 0-5).