Texas Endures Long Scoring Drought in Loss To Seton Hall

The No. 7 Longhorns failed in their second opportunity to beat an AP Top 25 team this season

Texas endured a long scoring drought in the second half, as the No. 7 Longhorns fell to the No. 23 Seton Hall Pirates, 64-60, in the Big 12-Big East Battle Thursday night in Newark, New Jersey.

Texas (6-2) missed its second shot to beat a Top 25 team, as the Pirates (8-1) managed to hold off the Longhorns down the stretch. Earlier this season, Texas lost to then-No. 1 Gonzaga.

Texas endured a scoring drought of more than seven minutes in the back end of the second half, with a Timmy Allen layup with 8:12 remaining giving Texas a 56-54 lead. From there, the Longhorns were nearly shut out, but their defense kept Seton Hall from running away with the contest.

Allen ended the drought with a layup with 52 seconds left, ending a span of seven minutes and 20 seconds without a point. Miraculously, Texas was down just 59-58.

But Seton Hall made it a four-point game with a 3-pointer by Bryce Aiken with 34 seconds left. It was Aiken’s first 3-pointer after missing his first seven attempts.

Allen answered with a layup with 24 seconds left, cutting the Pirate lead to 62-60 and prompting Texas coach Chris Beard to take his final time out.

Texas fouled Aiken with 14 seconds left and he made both free throws to push Seton Hall’s lead back to 64-60. Aiken scored all 10 of his points in the second half.

There was a delay with 3:40 left in the game as officials stopped play to review the game log to ensure that the team fouls were correct. At the start of the review, Seton Hall had six team fouls and Texas had five. It took more than 10 minutes to verify that the team fouls were, in fact, correct. It didn’t seem to help, or hurt, either team.

Tre Mitchell and Allen both had double-doubles for Texas, as Mitchell scored a team-leading 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Allen scored 17 points and grabbed a team-leading 12 rebounds. Marcus Carr added 10 points and had three assists.

Alexis Yetna had a double-double for Seton Hall, with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Jared Rhoden led the Pirates with 18 points, while Myles Cale added 10 points.

Seton Hall played most of the game without starting center Ike Obiagu, who played just five minutes before suffering a foot injury.

The Longhorns have four non-conference games left, beginning with Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Tuesday. After that, the Longhorns face Stanford on Dec. 19 at the Pac-12 Coast-to-Coast Challenge in Las Vegas, host Rice on Dec. 22 and host Incarnate Word on Dec. 28. After that, Texas opens Big 12 play on New Year’s Day when it hosts West Virginia.

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.

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