By Steve Habel/Senior Editor
AUSTIN, Texas — This was a game that Texas was not going to lose. But for a while in each of two overtime periods, it looked like the Longhorns might fall.
Then Dylan Osetkowski happened, and Eric Davis, Jr., happened, and Matt Coleman happened for the Longhorns … and — although he was not in the building — Andrew Jones might have happened.
Freshman forward Jericho Sims scored 14 points, including the game-winning free throw [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]with 5.3 seconds to play, as Texas upset No. 16 TCU 99-98 in double overtime Wednesday in a key Big 12 Conference contest at the Frank Erwin Center.
Texas played the game with a vigor and sense of determination forged in the 24 hours since the team was told Tuesday that Jones, the sophomore guard and one of the Longhorns’ leaders, had been diagnosed with leukemia.
When the UT coaches confided to the players about Jones’s illness, which is life-threatening, many of them could not be consoled — emotions were that high. But they somehow pulled themselves together and found a way to beat TCU by making the plays at the end when they were needed the most.
“This was an emotional roller-coaster — everyone left everything they had on the court tonight,” Osetkowski said afterward. “It didn’t matter how long it was going to take. We were determined to produce a win.”
“Our guys followed a mindset and playing for each other and for someone else: Andrew,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. “Our guys did a good job channeling their feelings. I’m proud of our guys. This is a game that could have gone either way, and when we won, in the minutes afterward, Andrew came into my mind. I thought our guys pulled together because anything could have happened.”
And almost anything, and everything, did.
The Horned Frogs’ Vladmir Brodziansky’s layup off an Alex Robinson assist with 9.9 seconds left sent the game to overtime tied at 77-77.
Osetkowski canned a three-pointer from the corner with 8 seconds left to put Texas in front but Brodziansky nailed a jumper at the buzzer to tie the game at 88 and send the game into second extra period.
Osetkowski’s two free throws with 2:06 to play in double overtime tied the game at 94, and after another bucket by Brodziansky, two more free throws by Osetkowski, with 58 seconds remaining, knotted the game again at 96.
TCU’s Jaylen Fisher calmly sank a pair of free throws that were answered on the other end by a jumper from Matt Coleman. After the Horned Frogs’ Desmond Bane missed a long jumper with 10 seconds remaining, Sims made one of two free throws to give Texas the lead for good with 5.3 to play.
Fisher then drove to the basket on Coleman and had a chance to win the game but his layup rolled off the rim as the buzzer sounded.
Maybe, Jones — or at least his presence — had a hand in Fisher’s miss; Smart seemed to think so. “We got some real help from someone when that ball didn’t go in, because that was the difference in the game,” he said.
Davis led the Longhorns (11-5 overall, 2-2 in Big 12 play) with 22 points, while Osetkowski added 20 points, Coleman hit for 17 and dished out 12 assists, and Mohamed Bamba scored 10 points, grabbed 9 rebounds and blocked 5 shots for Texas.
TCU’s Kendrich Williams, who had just three points at halftime, led all scorers with 26 points. Brodziansky added 19 points (all after halftime), Robinson scored 14 and Fisher hit for 13 points, all after halftime after playing just two minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.
“We had the lead in both overtimes and couldn’t finish things off,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “Defense is our issue. We are going to continue to address that beginning tomorrow. We played with some pace offensively in the second half and that allowed us to get back in the game.
“That’s the way this league is – we’ve had four close games and have lost three of them. We should have never been in the position we were in in the first half and midway through the second. “
Texas started the game with a flurry, driving to an 18-5 lead after a layup by Jacob Young at the 15:29 mark. But the Horned Frogs (13-3 overall, 1-3 in Big 12), using the experience gained from a slew of tough games over the first half of the season, whittled away at the advantage, cutting the bulge to 30-28 on a 3-pointer by Kouat Noi with 4:54 to play in the first half.
The Longhorns answered with seven straight points from Sims, the final four on dunks after flawless assists by Coleman and built a 37-28 advantage before claiming a 43-33 lead at halftime.
Sims led all scorers with 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor as all seven players who saw the floor the floor for the Longhorns scored in the half. Texas outshot the Horned Frogs, 63 percent-46.2 percent, in the first half.
Robinson paced TCU with 10 points off the bench while Noi added 9, all on three-pointers.
A pair of turnovers by Texas and six straight points by Williams allowed the Horned Frogs to cut the Longhorns’ lead, which had reached as many as 13 points in the second half, to 62-58 with 8:42 to play, setting the stage for the furious finish.
Texas also played without junior guard Kerwin Roach II, the team’s best perimeter defensive player, who was ruled out an hour before tipoff with a left hand injury that will keep him out indefinitely.
The Longhorns return to the court Saturday when they travel to Stillwater to face Oklahoma State (11-5 overall, 1-3 in Big 12 play).
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