Texas Basketball: Longhorns Still Can’t Win On The Road
Texas Basketball dropped another road game on Saturday afternoon, this time to the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Texas Basketball lost 84-71 against the Cowboys to drop to 10-15 on the season and 4-8 in Big 12 play. The Longhorns have not won a road game this season.
Texas did themselves in with two poor stretches in the first and second half.
The Longhorns took a solid 23-15 lead midway through the first half on two big dunks from Jarrett Allen. Then, one small but very significant defensive lapse ignited a huge run for OSU.
With the Horns up by 8 points, Ok. State ran a play for Phil Forte III. Texas guard Eric Davis lost focus, allowing Forte to shake free for an easy three-pointer. Suddenly, the game got out of hand.
Forte’s three-pointer led the Cowboys on a 20-2 run. It was a typical lapse for Texas this season where the offense stagnates and the defense falls off. Plus, the lack of a true PG to steady the ship allowed the lull to continue. OSU could not miss and the Horns lost their poise.
Texas was still in the game, though. They went into halftime only down five points at 38-33.
Second Half Run Hurts Texas Basketball
Coming back from halftime, Texas seemed completely rattled by the 20-2 run. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State was confident after finding their rhythm on offense.
The Cowboys jumped out on a 10-0 run to start the second half. That’s inexcusable for the Horns coming out of halftime. Suddenly, a manageable game turned into a 15-point lead for Ok. State.
“We responded decent at the end of the half. They threw in a fortunate shot, and then we scored at the very end,” said head coach Shaka Smart said after the game, via TexasSports.com.
“So, I actually thought the way we shot free throws and the way we shot the ball from outside at halftime, we weren’t in a terrible spot. We didn’t come out of the half playing near the level of defense or type of intensity we needed to have, so from that standpoint, it wasn’t good enough and Oklahoma State had a lot to do with that.”
The Longhorns tried to battle back to get within a few possessions through the second half. But, every time Texas made a run, the Cowboys answered with more three-pointers.
The Cowboys finished 10-19 on three-pointers. Meanwhile, Texas’ season-long struggle to shoot the ball continued. The Horns went 4-23 from behind the line.
One of those misses was a strange play near the end of the game. Kendal Yancy was fouled shooting a three-pointer, but the referee did not award him three free throws. Instead, the Big 12 referee said the foul came after Yancy shot the ball. As noted during the ESPN broadcast, it was a strange time to make that rare call.
Texas Continues To Lack Poise On The Road
One of Shaka Smart’s big talking points for road games is concentration and poise. Texas showed that early, but lost it in the first half and could not get it back in the second half.
The stat that really captures this is Texas’ free throw shooting against Oklahoma State.
Texas went 3-9 on free throws in the first half and finished 9-18 for the game. The .500 shooting percentage was worse than the Cowboys’ three-point shooting percentage.
The biggest culprit was freshman star Jarrett Allen, who went 0-7 on free throws. This came one game after Allen beat Iowa State by making two clutch free throws with seven seconds left.
This youthful inconsistency continues to define Texas Basketball this season. And, especially on the road, where Texas has not won a game this year.
Plus, Texas has not won back-to-back games since starting 3-0 way back at the beginning of the year.
Next: How Texas Avoided Super Bowl 51 Finish vs. ISU
Now, Texas has another chance to respond when they travel to Norman to play Oklahoma on Tuesday. Will they finally win on the road this season?