Longhorns Fall to No. 4 Houston in Overtime After Second-Half Rally
AUSTIN -- Playing their fourth straight ranked conference opponent at the Moody Center on Monday night, the Texas Longhorns knew that this one would be different than the rest.
The No. 4 Houston Cougars marched into Austin with a case for being the best team in the country, but in the Big 12, records, rankings and reputation can often mean little -- especially on the road.
The Longhorns nearly proved this to be the case once again for the third time in four games after leading by six with 7:40 to play but the Cougars and guard Jamal Shead showed they were too much for Texas in a 76-72 overtime win.
Texas (14-7, 3-5) got a team-high 20 points from guard Max Abmas while Dillon Mitchell finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, but a game-high 25 points from Shead powered Houston (19-2, 6-2) to victory.
"There's no such thing as an upset on the road in the Big 12," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. "If you're on the road in this league, there is no upset. Had Texas won this game, it wouldn't have been an upset. They're good enough to win that game tonight. We're very fortunate that we won."
© Scott Wachter, USA TODAY
Houston forward J'Wan Roberts added 14 points, eight rebounds and the go-ahead layup with 37 seconds left in overtime. Cougars guard L.J. Cryer, a Baylor transfer, finished with 14 points on 5 of 17 from the field while Emanuel Sharp tallied 13 points, eight rebounds and some clutch free throws late in overtime.
Texas also got 14 points and six rebounds from Dylan Disu, who bounced back from a tough first half to help lead the second-half rally after the Longhorns had trailed by as many as 12 in the first half.
Houston out-rebounded Texas 47-36, with the 15-8 edge on the offensive glass proving to be the difference in the end, as the Cougars won the second-chance points battle, 19-8.
"It was difficult for sure," Disu said of the rebounding battle. "But we knew that was going to be our biggest challenge coming into this game. Obviously, we didn't get it done and that kind of cost us the game tonight."
The Longhorns trailed 13-12 at the midway point of the half, but Shead continued his hot start by hitting a triple at the 8:21 mark before finding Cryer for a floater to give the Cougars an 18-12 edge, their biggest lead at that point.
This quickly grew to 33-21, as Houston keep throwing punches and answered each time the Longhorns punched back. As expected, the Cougars had stifling defense on one end, which led to some easy looks on the other. On the shots that were contested, Shead still found a way to hit.
Texas got a bucket apiece from Disu and Kadin Shedrick in the final two minutes to make it a single-digit game at halftime, as Houston led 33-25.
The Longhorns shot 35.5 percent from the floor in the first half due to some suffocating Houston defense. Abmas and Disu were a combined 3 of 14 from the field for seven points. Shead led all scorers with 11 points.
The Cougars hardly looked like they'd be slowing down coming out of halftime after a pair of triples from Cryer and Sharp, but Texas went on a 7-0 run to cut Houston's lead to 41-37 amid a near three-minute scoring drought.
Despite offensive rebounds that led to long possession for the Cougars, the Longhorns stayed steady by stringing together stops and getting six straight points from Mitchell to take a 48-46 lead with 10:26 to play.
After Houston tied it up again at 48, Weaver went 1 of 2 at the foul line and got a layup before a transition triple from Disu gave the Longhorns their biggest lead of six at 54-48 with 8:20 to play.
Shead quickly turned the tide with a pair of 3s to tie the game at 54-54 before Sharp hit another to give Houston a 57-54 lead after a 9-0 run.
The Longhorns answered back in the final few minutes as the two teams traded free throws and buckets. With the game tied at 65-65, Texas nearly had a chance to take the lead on a fastbreak with 30 seconds left before Tyrese Hunter threw the ball back to Shead, who called a timeout with 21.9 to play but air-balled the potential game-winner out of bounds with 2.8 left to send the game to overtime.
In the extra session, neither team made a field until a vicious put-back dunk from Joseph Tugler with 1:27 to play gave Houston a 70-67 lead. Abmas answered with an and-one off the glass to tie the game again, but the Cougars got a go-ahead layup from Roberts with 37 seconds left off a put-back and stopped Texas' potential game-tying possession.
The Longhorns will visit the No. 25 TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT.
