Texas Basketball: 2 studs, 1 dud from last-second win vs. Baylor
Dud: Ithiel Horton, Wing
Senior wing Ithiel Horton got his second consecutive start for Terry and the Longhorns against Baylor after a big outing against his former team in Texas's Jan. 17 loss to the UCF Knights. Getting the start against his former team sparked Horton to have his best performance offensively since the first two games of the season for the Longhorns.
Against UCF, Horton was on fire shooting from the field and from beyond the arc, especially in the first half. He scored 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field and 4-of-10 from deep.
Despite getting in the starting lineup again, Horton couldn't find that same spark against Baylor. In 20 minutes on the floor, Horton registered just two points on 1-of-4 shooting from the field and 0-of-1 from beyond the arc. He also had two turnovers and zero assists on a challenging day offensively for Horton.
Horton wasn't the only key senior wing for the Longhorns that didn't make much of an impact on this game against Baylor. Senior forward Brock Cunningham was held scoreless in just 10 minutes off the bench for the Longhorns.
The good news was that Terry's squad didn't need huge games from the wings to get the win.
Instead of relying on contributions from the wings, Terry utilized more three-guard lineups down the stretch in this game, giving 19 minutes off the bench to sophomore guard Chendall Weaver. True freshman guard Chris Johnson also played four key minutes off the bench late in the second half at the three.
Weaver didn't fill up the stat sheet by any means, but he made multiple critical plays to help the Longhorns get the win late. The most important play from Weaver resulted in a big offensive rebound late in the second half where he dove to tip the ball out to a teammate to get a valuable possession back.
If Texas can find other sources of secondary scoring, especially from the top reserves coming off the bench, that will be a big boost through a gauntlet stretch of Big 12 play where the Longhorns have to face five more ranked opponents in a row.