By Steve Habel/Senior Editor
AUSTIN, Texas — In a game that featured two of the nation’s most ballyhooed freshman players, in Oklahoma’s Trae Young and Texas’ Mohamed Bamba, it might have been easy for another first-year hoopster to get lost in the crowd.
But it was first-year UT guard Matt Coleman who made the biggest plays Saturday and led the Longhorns to a scintillating 79-74 win over the 12th-ranked Sooners in Big 12 Conference play at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.
It would have been easy for Coleman to shy away from the spotlight in this game, especially after he missed three free throws near the end of regulation in [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]Wednesday that could have salted away a Texas victory over Texas Tech and then he fouled out, forcing the Longhorns to play the extra period without the court leader and one of their defensive leaders.
Instead, Coleman stepped up and took charge of the team when it was needed the most, scoring 22 points, including four free throws in the final 1:44, to help propel Texas to the win over one of its biggest rivals.
“I told Matt, ‘if we play with spirit we will win the game,’ and he, more than anyone on our team, understood what I meant,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. “He got the team into the right attitude. Matt has been working on his three-point shooting and on his foul shots, and it’s made a difference.”
A layup by Coleman with 5:00 to play gave Texas its first lead, at 68-66, since the opening minutes and another layup, this time by Kerwin Roach II a minute later, pushed the Longhorns’ lead to four points, capped a 13-0 run and sent the crowd of 15,553 into a frenzy.
Texas never lost the lead again, hitting key free throws and getting a rim-rattling reverse alley-oop dunk by Bamba with 33 seconds to play to close out the game.
“You have to fight, and my number was called again and I was able to make the plays tonight,” Coleman said. “I see every game as a gift, an opportunity, and the crowd gave us some extra push. We were down 10 and our spirit wasn’t great at that time. We needed a stop, a block or a shot to go in to get the thing turned around, and we got that.”
The Longhorns held Oklahoma’s Trae Young, the nation’s leading scorer at more than 30 points per game, to 19 points on 7-of-22 shooting, including just 2-of-14 from beyond the arc. Young did amass 14 assists in the loss.
“I thought I had some spots that I could make some shots, but didn’t,” said Young, who played all 40 minutes and had the ball in his hands on virtually every Oklahoma possession. “I just didn’t get into a rhythm, but all my shots were either short or long. I didn’t get worn down. Texas just made the plays it needed to in the last five minutes and we didn’t.”
Roach scored 19 points for Texas (15-8 overall, 5-5 in Big 12 play). Dylan Osetkowski added 15 points and Bamba fought his way to 14 points and 9 rebounds.
Jamuni McNeace added 16 points for the Sooners while Rashard Odomes hit for 15 and Christian James scored 10 points for Oklahoma (16-6 overall, 6-4 in Big 12 play) before fouling out with 1:44 to play.
Oklahoma led, 40-35, at halftime despite just 5 points from Young (none after the first three minutes of the game) on 2-of-9 shooting from the floor. Young made up for his shooting by dishing out nine assists in the half, many of which ended up in the hands of McNeace, the half’s leading scorer with 14 points before the intermission.
Odomes added 10 points in the half for the Sooners, who outshot Texas, 51.4 percent-40 percent, and owned a 22-15 rebounding edge over the first 20 minutes.
“We put Matt on Trae Young, and he fought and battled,” Smart said. “We needed to pick up our defensive energy to take away some of the things Oklahoma was getting in the first half, and we did. But mostly it was want to.”
The Sooners pushed their advantage to 50-40 on a jumper by Young with 16:26 to play but Coleman scored seven points to spark a 12-2 UT run to tie the game at 52 at the 12:26 mark.
Oklahoma roared back to stoke its advantage to 66-57 with 7:54 to play before a three-pointer by Roach and two free throws by Bamba closed the gap to four points to help set the stage for the furious end game.
“We did what we needed to for about 35 minutes and Texas did what it needed to at the end,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said. “We had some loose possessions, had a six-point swing there when we had the lead and Texas came and took it from us. When you are in a position to win and don’t, it’s disappointing.”
All of the Longhorns said they got an added boost from the big crowd and a long day that began with an ESPN College Game Day broadcast early in the morning.
“The crowd gave us a huge lift and we needed it because we didn’t have a lot of energy after a long and tough week,” Smart said. “There was a ton of energy in the building at the start and our guys wanted to win so bad that it affected them at the first of the game.
“There are a lot of things we need to get better at but I’m proud of the way we handled ourselves in a tough week.”
Next up for Texas is a home game Wednesday against Kansas State.
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