By Steve Habel
Senior Contributing Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas and Kansas State, two of the teams at the bottom of the Big 12 Conference standings, squared off Saturday in a race to see which team would own at least a piece of the league cellar.
Someone had to win, and it ended up being the Longhorns, who strung together a spirited second-half stretch of defense and opportunistic scoring to waltz past hapless and, suddenly, toothless Kansas State 64-50 at the Erwin Center in Big 12 Conference play.
Matt Coleman [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]II scored 14 points and the Texas defense did its part and more as the Longhorns
snapped a two-game losing streak.
“It was a ‘want to’ — to want to get stops for Texas,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. “Our guys want to do well and do well for their team. At halftime they were really engaged. We have a lot of guys on our team that want to play better individually, but what’s important is doing that for the team.”
The Longhorns led by four points at the break and ran off the first 12 points of the second half over the first seven minutes to boost their lead to 43-27. Texas had its lead up to 50-32 after jumper by Coleman with 10:03 to play.
“We put an emphasis on attention to detail at the start of the second half, because we hadn’t played well right after halftime the past two games,” UT’s Jase Febres said. “The whole game changed because of our defensive intensity.”
Kansas State finally caught fire late in the game, hitting four straight baskets to climb back to within 58-46, but it was far too little, too late.
Courtney Ramey scored 11 points and Febres added 10 for Texas (11-4, 1-2 in Big 12 play). Forward Jericho Sims had 8 points and 8 rebound in the game, breaking a streak of three straight games with double-doubles.
The Longhorns outshot Kansas State, 49 percent to 37 percent, and hit 10 of their 23 three-pointers. They had a season-high blocked shots.
The Wildcats stayed within shouting distance for a while, thanks to 13 offensive rebounds and 15 fast-break points, but it wasn’t close to enough.
Guard Cartier Diarra led the Wildcats with 13 points, while guard DaJuan Gordon scored 9 points in the loss. Kansas State (7-8, 0-3 in Big 12 play) has lost four of its past five games.
Forward Kamaka Hepa led the Longhorns with 8 point over the first 20 minutes, including a three-pointer at the buzzer at the end of the half that gave UT a 31-27 lead.
Diarra paced the Wildcats with 9 points in the half and the Kansas State defense forced 11 turnovers in the first 20 minutes that they converted onto 16 points.
“Give credit to Texas,” Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said. “They bumped us off of ball screens on defense, and even when we got to the basket they contested shots.”
The Wildcats didn’t get to Austin until mid-day Saturday because their Friday charter flight from Manhattan, Kansas was cancelled because of a sudden burst of snow and ice.
“It was a long two days,” Weber said. “Our guys played well, especially in the first half, and we kept battling. Texas started the second half with a good run and was very physical defensively. Once we had to play more half-court offense Texas had us where it wanted us.”
Texas returns to the court Wednesday at Oklahoma State, which also is 0-3 in Big 12 games, making it a game that the Longhorns need to win. The game can be seen on ESPN+ or heard on the Lonhorn Radio Network.
“We will go to Oklahoma State with an aggressive mindset and do all we can to get a win,” Febres said.
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [habeabk] [/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.