Texas basketball collapses in second half, falls to Baylor

A red-hot start to the game scoring-wise for senior guard Max Abmas and Texas basketball was, unfortunately, all for naught as the No. 11 Baylor Bears topped the Horns in Waco on March 4. Texas was on fire shooting from the field and from beyond the arc in the first half of this game.

The Longhorns shot 17-of-30 from the field (56.9 percent) and 7-of-13 from deep en route to taking a convincing eight-point lead into the locker room at halftime. Abmas had 17 of Texas's 48 points in the first half on an incredible 7-of-9 from the field and 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Max Abmas's 33 points aren't enough to get Texas basketball past No. 11 Baylor

Abmas stayed hot at the outset of the second half, knocking down multiple shots in the first few minutes. But Abmas was the only player that consistently provided the Longhorns scoring in the second half of this game.

The offense started to really dry up for the Longhorns in the final 10 minutes of the game. At one point, Texas nearly went for a stretch of 10 minutes without making a field goal in the second half.

Texas also suffered an unfortunate and costly injury in the second half when senior big man Dylan Disu had to leave the game due to an apparent knee injury. ESPN's Kris Budden later reported that Disu suffered a left knee sprain and he would miss the rest of the game.

Pretty much everything that could go wrong did for the Longhorns late in the second half. Texas lost the second half by more than 15 points, which squandered their strong start through the game's first 25 minutes.

Senior forward Brock Cunningham fouled out, contributing to Baylor more than doubling the number of free-throw attempts the Longhorns got in the final 20 minutes. Cunningham was ejected after a controversial flagrant foul call that the refs needed to review after the play in the second half.

And while the Baylor defense was dedicating double teams to limit Abmas' offensive touches late in the game, no other Longhorns players had any answers on the offensive end of the floor. Redshirt junior center Kadin Shedrick was the only other Longhorns player beside Abmas to score over three points in the second half.

Abmas finished the second half with a team-high 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Another major factor that contributed to the Longhorns' loss to Baylor was losing the battle on the glass. Baylor's length and athleticism proved too problematic for the Longhorns in this game. Texas got outrebounded by a margin of 15 against Baylor and four on the offensive glass.

Despite a game and season-high 33 points and five assists from Abmas, the Longhorns fell to the Bears by a score of 93-85 in Waco.

Texas's winning streak ends at two games, and Baylor avoids the regular season series sweep in the final Big 12 meeting between these two teams. The Longhorns' record moves to 19-11 (8-9 Big 12), while Baylor moves to 22-8 (11-6 Big 12) with their third straight win.

Terry and the Longhorns will look to bounce back when they host the rival Oklahoma Sooners at the Moody Center in the regular season finale on March 9.

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