Jonathan Holmes’ second buzzer-beater saved Texas’ bacon in more ways than one Tuesday night in the Erwin Center.
(Also Read: It’s Good! Holmes’ Game Winning Shot)
Holmes connected on a three-pointer as time expired to give the Longhorns a 67-64 win over 22nd ranked Kansas State. When the high-arcing shot tickled the twine[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] , it staved off a final minute that saw the Longhorns give the Wildcats too many opportunities to get back into the game, absolved a teammate of making a mess of coach Rick Barnes’ final play and gave Texas another signature, resume-building win as the conference season nears its midpoint.
Texas led 64-60 in the final minute when Javan Felix beat the shot clock with 58 seconds left. KSU drew within 64-62 on Will Spradling’s jumper. After a stop, KSU had a chance to tie, but Shane Southwell missed a pair of free throws after drawing Cam Ridley’s fifth foul with 15 seconds left.
Felix had a chance to put Texas up four, but the 83 percent foul shooter missed a pair as well. Southwell grabbed the rebounded, then atoned for his misses by driving the length of the floor to tie the game with five seconds left.
Texas advanced the ball to midcourt and called time out with 3.9 seconds left. Barnes drew up a play to get Felix a shot to win the game, but Isaiah Taylor inbounded the ball to Demarcus Holland, who wasn’t expecting to be involved, as Kirk Bohls described in the Austin American-Statesman. Miles from the basket, Holland quickly called timeout and the Longhorns made the most of their second crack at it, as Jim Vertuno pointed out.
“The first time we ran it, it was going to be a lollipop pass for Javan, which means I was going to screen and he was going to come back and try to get open in the corner, but Demarcus [Holland] called timeout,” Holmes said. “So, I knew since they were worried about Javan, my man was going to go with him, so I just slipped to the ball and I was open and made the shot.”
For Holmes, the buzzer beater looked very familiar, though this one brought different results. Last season, Holmes hit a three from the opposite corner to draw the Longhorns even with West Virginia before Texas fell in overtime 57-53.
The junior from San Antonio, the longest tenured Longhorn on the roster, has come up big for the Horns all season. He leads the team in scoring at 12.8 ppg and ranks second in rebounding at 7.4 rpg. He’s shooting 52 percent from the field and 81 percent from the foul line.
“Jon is very skilled and that’s what we’ve tried to tell him,” Barnes said following Saturday’s 86-76 win over then-8th ranked Iowa State. “There’s a lot of things that he can do.”
Against the Cyclones, Holmes scored 23 points on 9 of 13 shooting and sparked the second half run that put Texas ahead to stay. Trailing 44-43, he made a lay-up and then a jumper on successive possessions and capped an 8-0 run with a put-back that gave Texas a 51-44 lead.
At 15-4, 4-2, Texas is on the cusp of matching last year’s win total. The fourth conference win in a row marks the team’s best stretch since 2011-12, when it last made the NCAA tournament. The Horns have beaten ranked opponents in back-to-back games for the first time since 2010-11. The stretch has Texas thinking about keeping itself in contention for both a conference title and NCAA tournament bid.
“I mean, this time last year we were 1-5 right now, or 0-5 or something like that, but right now we have put ourselves in a position to control our own destiny,” Holmes said Tuesday when asked about the Horns’ Big 12 title prospects.
Texas looks to improve on those prospects in Waco on Saturday, where the Horns take on a third consecutive ranked opponent. Baylor ranks 23rd in the USA Today coaches poll. After returning from Waco, the Horns get a week to prepare for conference leading Kansas. The Jayhawks rank eighth in the AP poll and 11th in the USA Today coaches poll.
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