Horns make a game of it but fall short
Jayhawks take UT’s best punch, hold on for win at Lawrence
After Saturday’s loss to Texas Tech, Texas coach Shaka Smart said his team needed to “turn the page quickly.”
But a trip to Lawrence, Kan., traditionally had been the opposite of a panacea for most programs. Kansas is almost invulnerable at home and the Longhorns had not won at Allen Fieldhouse since 2011, when they snapped the Jayhawks’ 69game home winning streak.
Turned out, turning the page against seventh-ranked Kansas on Monday night was just as difficult as expected.
Texas battled back from a sleepy start and tied the game late, but Kansas prevailed 80-78.
“The message is that when we control the things we can control and we stay together as a group. I thought we were about 95 percent there in those areas tonight,” Smart said. “That’s what you have to do to beat the very best teams.
“If we play the way we did with the spirit we had tonight, we’re going to win plenty of games. But we have to have the understanding of going into what goes into grabbing a game down the stretch.”
The Longhorns (10-7, 2-3 Big 12) missed three consecutive jumpers to start the game as the Jayhawks (15-2, 4-1) ran out to an 8-0 lead.
Kansas sophomore guard and defensive specialist Marcus Garrett emerged as the first half’s unexpected hero, at one point scoring 13 consecutive points. Averaging 5.8 points and 0.3 3-pointers entering the game, Garrett finished with a career-high 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting with a trio of 3s.
But Texas settled in and played to its strengths — size and athleticism.
The Longhorns outworked the Jayhawks on the glass, grabbing 22 rebounds, seven offensive, and scoring 11 second-chance points in the first half.
Five UT players combined to hit
eight 3-pointers in the half and, even though sophomore guard Jase Febres missed an open dunk at the buzzer, UT led 40-38.
“Our guys kept battling,” Smart said during a halftime interview. “On the offensive end, we said we’ve got to get in the paint for and then we’ll shoot the three.”
Texas couldn’t replicate that shooting performance in the second half and, as Kansas rampedup its defense, the game started to slip away.
Senior guard Kerwin Roach managed to link up with freshman forward Jaxson Hayes on a couple of lobs to keep the defense honest, but as UT reverted back to its identity as a shooting-challenged group, the Jayhawks was able to more effectively clog the paint and close off driving lanes.
As the Longhorns clawed for every single point, Kansas started rolling behind the smooth play of guard Lagerald Vick. He sank a pair of 3-pointers in the second half’s opening minutes and assisted on another as Kansas grew its lead to 10.
But Texas made adjustments and didn’t wilt even as its deficit swelled and Allen Fieldhouse grew more and more animated.
“You’ve got to tune out the crowd and tune out the refs and just stay together and battle,” said sophomore guard Matt Coleman, who led UT with 16 points and eight assists. “We knew coming in, this was one of the hardest places to play in college basketball. We knew what it would take. I felt like we responded to certain things, and we were right there for a chance to win the game.”
Freshman guard Courtney Ramey sliced into the paint and hit Hayes for another dunk. Hayes followed by rejecting Jayhawks guard Devon Dotson’s layup, which turned into a transition 3pointer for Roach.
Febres, who finished with 12 points, hit 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions to tie the game at 73 with 2:15 remaining.
Minutes later, Ramey got loose in transition and sprinted to the wing, where he took a pass from Coleman and buried the 3-pointer with 8.6 seconds remaining.
Febres had one final look at a game-winner, but his 3-point attempt rattled off the left side of the cylinder, sending the Longhorns to their third consecutive loss.
“It will bring more of a hunger out of us, more of a desire to just want to get better,” Coleman said of the loss. “Shots might not fall every night, but there are other ways you can help yourself win.
“If we keep doing the little things and trust it, if we fall in love with what we did tonight and then keep battling and fix a few things, we can get these wins and compete with anybody in the conference and make a run.”
Texas will return home to face 20th-ranked Oklahoma Saturday night at the Erwin Center.