San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Longhorns start hot, go cold, then heat up to end 2-game skid
AUSTIN — For four minutes Saturday afternoon, Texas looked like world-beaters.
The offense hummed, a sweet symphony of crisp passes, buttery 3s and precise cuts. And the defense terrorized, a war machine boasting ravenous man coverage and smart switches that kept Oklahoma State pinned down without a point.
“They obviously played like they were determined today,” Cowboys coach Mike Boynton said. “From the outside looking in, it seemed like they played like their backs were against the wall and that they needed to come out like a ball of fire — they did, obviously, starting the game up 13-0.”
Oklahoma State managed to douse that fire. It even ended up leading a good portion of the first half.
But No. 23 Texas (14-5, 4-3 Big 12) overcame the comedown from its scorching start, clawing its way to a 56-51 win over the Cowboys (10-8, 3-4) at the Erwin Center to end the season series in a tie, a crucial win to remain in the hunt in college basketball’s most unforgiving league.
“To be down at half and really go out and win the game over the last 20 minutes was just a great sign and lesson and experience for our players,” Texas coach Chris Beard said after the win, which snapped a two-game losing streak. “We haven’t pulled that one off yet this year, so that was nice to do.”
He added: “But obviously, the first four or five minutes of the game was the period where we really gave ourselves the best chance to win.”
Every single Texas starter scored during its game-opening 13-0 run. Marcus Carr, Tre Mitchell and Courtney Ramey dropped
in a 3-pointer each. Timmy Allen pogo-sticked for a couple offensive boards and a putback. Christian Bishop zipped down the lane and turned Allen’s contorting bounce pass into an unobstructed jam.
The Cowboys missed their first five looks, nothing clean. They appeared overrun by the Longhorns’ aggression.
It was Texas at its absolute best, a force that could just strangulate and maul on defense while attacking with a whole flotilla of offensive weapons. It didn’t last.
Boynton’s crew cranked it up after that opening salvo, using a timeout to breathe in and regroup.
It threw a fleeting zone look out to rattle the Texas offense, forcing turnovers on four straight possessions. A couple breakaway baskets created off those giveaways seemed to calm the Cowboys’ nerves, kickstarting a 16-0 scoring run as the Longhorns went scoreless for 10 minutes.
Carr’s corner 3-pointer finally snapped the skid, but Texas still looked like it was playing with its
jaw clenched for the remainder of the first half. With its own offense flailing and Oklahoma State sophomore guard Bryce Thompson (game-high 20 points) starting to heat up, the Longhorns wobbled into their locker room down two at halftime.
Beard tried something a little
different over the next 20 minutes.
He grouped 6-foot-9 Dylan Disu, 6-9 Mitchell (12 points) and 6-7 Allen (11, eight rebounds) together for a stretch, a rare lineup with tantalizing versatility and range that worked in the Longhorns’ favor. But the real gamechanger was Brock Cunningham, the charge-taking, reboundchasing redshirt junior forward and occasional Texas folk hero.
Cunningham didn’t score or attempt a shot in 10 second-half minutes. Not his game.
But Texas outscored the Cowboys by four in Cunningham’s time on the court. The 6-6 Westlake alum’s unyielding defense helped Texas force nine turnovers in that period, and he could have had more than one assist had some of his teammate’s hands not been so slippery.
Still, that one dime was momentous. And beautiful.
Cunningham broke baseline on a backdoor cut, gathered a nolook bounce pass from Bishop and immediately beamed the ball to Ramey (10 points) for a wide-open corner 3. The shot fell, putting Texas up 44-37 with 6:45 left.
“Brock was the MVP of the game in a lot of ways,” Beard said. “Rebounded the ball, got the big assist, played with a lot of poise and toughness down the stretch.”
Aside from those first four minutes, this was a game only a winning team could love.
Texas shot 36.7 percent, hit 6 of 21 3-pointers and committed 20 turnovers. Oklahoma State hit 37.5 percent of its shots and committed 15 turnovers.
After playing a gorgeous brand of ball to begin, the Longhorns made enough plays down the stretch to win an ugly one.
Mitchell banked in a 15-footer with 56 seconds left. Carr (14 points) and Ramey hit four clutch free throws in the final 11 seconds. And Cunningham picked off the Cowboys’ final inbounds pass to seal the win.
“In a 40-minute game, there’s different times when you can win the game,” Beard said. “I thought our guys did a great job starting the game tonight. Really, in a lot of ways, it was the difference.”