Texas men rally but fall short against W. Virginia
MORGANTOWN, W.VA. — West Virginia’s Pat Suemnick was a ball of nerves in his first career start earlier in the week. In his second start, he took an assistant coach’s advice: Go have fun.
Suemnick set career highs of 16 points and six rebounds, West Virginia built a double-digit lead and held on for a 76-73 win over No. 25 Texas on Saturday night.
Kerr Kriisa and Raequan Battle added 14 points apiece and Quinn Slazinski had 13 points for West Virginia (6-10, 1-2 Big 12), which broke a three-game losing streak.
Texas (12-4, 1-2) couldn’t overcome another late deficit after beating Cincinnati in the final seconds on Tuesday.
“I’d like to give West Virginia a lot of credit for tonight. They really came out and set the tone early with physical play,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said. “They competed at a very high level.”
West Virginia has rotated players looking for any type of inside presence while center Jesse Edwards recuperates from a broken wrist. Suemnick has started the past two games. His previous career high for scoring was 12 points of the bench in a loss at Houston on Jan. 6.
“He’s had a couple of good games in a row and we keep building on that,” said West Virginia interim coach Josh Eilert. “You can see the confidence in his eyes.”
Suemnick dunked off a rebound and Kriisa hit a 3-pointer to put West Virginia ahead to stay, 40-38, with 15:28 left.
Texas went three minutes between field goals and Slazinski sank two free throws to cap a 7-0 run for West Virginia’s largest lead, 59-48, with 5:45 remaining.
Max Abmas scored 19 of his season-high 32 points in the final five minutes, including two free throws with 1:08 left to cut the Texas deficit to 68-65. But the Longhorns got no closer.
Dylan Disu, who had scored a career-high 33 points against Cincinnati, fouled out with 2:16 remaining and finished with 18 points.
Freshman Ja’kobe Walter scored all 14 of his points in the second half to lift the host Bears on Saturday to stay atop the Big 12 standings with a 3-0 record.
Walter helped seal the win for the Bears (14-2) with a pair of free throws with 9.8 seconds remaining after drawing a foul following Simas Lukosius’ missed 3-pointer. Lukosius also missed a 3-pointer in the final seconds.
In Hartford, Conn., Alex Karaban tied a career high with 26 points, and the defending champion Huskies (15-2, 5-1 Big East) made their case to be considered the nation’s top team.
In Champaign, Ill., Jahmir Young led the Terrapins (11-6, 3-3 Big Ten) with 28 points as they outscored the Illini 39-28 in the second half.
The host Buffaloes (15-1, 5-0 Pac-12) kept the Cardinal’s Tara Vanderveer a win away from tying Mike Krzyzewski as the winningest coach in college basketball history. Jaylyn Sherrod and Quay Miller each had 13 points for Colorado, which snapped a six-game skid to Stanford (15-2, 5-1).
Honesty Scott-grayson’s 21 points led the host Tigers (12-5, 1-3 SEC) to the upset of Angel Reese (24 points) and the defending champions (16-2, 3-1).
Sarah Bejedi scored a career-high 31 points as the host Seminoles (14-4, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) upset the Hokies (13-3, 4-1).