Last-minute three-pointer lifts men’s basketball to 62-58 victory over Texas Tech

By Steve Habel, Senior Editor

AUSTIN, Texas – All the close games the Texas men’s basketball team has played this year have steeled the Longhorns for the end game, and occasionally they’ve been able to make lemonade out of lemons.

Wednesday marked the second straight game in which the Longhorns made the plays they needed when guard Eric Davis, Jr. poured in 15 points and hit the deciding three-point basket with 29 seconds to play to lift Texas Longhorns past Texas Tech 62-58 in Big 12 Conference action at the Frank Erwin Center.

A free throw by Tech’s Anthony Livingston with 53 seconds to play [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]tied the game at 58 before Davis poured in his deciding shot from the deep right corner. Livingston then missed a three with eight seconds remaining and the Longhorns’ Andrew Jones added a free throw two seconds later to cement the victory.

Texas (9-13, 3-6 in Big 12 play) was led by freshman center Jarrett Allen’s 19 points (on 8-of-11 shooting from the floor) and eight rebounds to go along with Davis’ 15 and Jones’ added 11.

Texas now has won 21 consecutive games at home against the Red Raiders. The last Texas Tech win in Austin came during the 1995-96 season, when both schools were in the Southwest Conference.

The Longhorns outshot Tech from the floor, 46.2 percent to 35.6 percent, and won despite getting outrebounded by the Red Raiders 38-35, watching as their 14 turnovers led to 20 points for Tech and making just eight of 17 free-throw shots.

“As a team we still have to let go and play,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. “We were pretty solid on defense, and that’s probably won us the game. We work on late-game situations – we can’t play out of avoidance and worry that things are not going to go your way. When we got a shot, it was pretty good – we shot 59 percent in the second half.”

The game featured four ties and eight lead changes, the final one on Davis’ huge three-pointer.

“It feels good to make that shot. I try to hunt good ones, but at the same time I want to be aggressive,” Davis said. “I saw the play develop and I stepped in a shot it down with some confidence. In past games, I’ve seen us get kind of tight, but we’ve learned from the tight games we’ve played.

“These kinds of games are fun and what I came to college for. You have to stay in the moment and enjoy what you’re doing.”

The Red Raiders (15-7, 3-6 in Big 12) got 15 points from Keenan Evans, 14 from Livingston and 12 from Niem Stevenson.

Texas Tech trailed, 12-11, at the 11:31 mark of the first half before forging a 11-2 run that sent it to a 22-14 lead with 6:16 to play in the half. But Texas responded with a spurt of its own, outscoring the Red Raiders 14-4 through the remainder of the half, taking a 28-26 lead with 33 seconds left on a ringing 3-pointer by Jones.

“Coach (Shaka Smart) always tells us that it’s a game of runs and to just keep calm and let things come to us and (to) trust our preparation,” Jones said. “We scouted them really well, and we adjusted our closeouts, depending on who was shooting for them. The more we work together the stronger we get — we are building a brotherhood.”

Allen led all scorers in the half with 10 points while Livingston and Stevenson paced the Red Raiders with five points each.

Each team hit 11 of 30 shots (36.7 percent) from the field in the half but Texas made three of 11 shots from behind the three-point arc while Tech was just 2-of-9 from long distance. The Red Raiders out rebounded Texas, 23-17.

A Jones three-pointer at the 15:13 mark of the second half pushed the Longhorns’ lead to 41-30 and highlighted an 11-4 run by Texas to start the half. But the Red Raiders responded, tied the game at 50 on two free throws by Stevenson with 6:50 to play and took a 53-50 lead on the ensuing possession on a 3-pointer by Stevenson.

Davis’ layup with 1:27 to play allowed Texas to regain the lead at 58-57 and set the stage for the endgame.

“Texas has been in a lot of close games this year and I’m sure they are happy they finally won one,” Tech coach Chris Beard said. “Give them credit — it’s more about what they did then what we didn’t do. We got to the free throw line and I wanted to be the more aggressive team and I think we were, but we didn’t take advantage of that.”

The Longhorns return to the court Saturday when they travel to Fort Worth to face TCU, which beat Texas, 64-61, Jan. 11 in Austin. UT then returns home Tuesday to face Iowa State.

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