Coming into today’s game against the Iowa State Cyclones,
the Texas Longhorns were on many people projections of being on the outside
looking in for a NCAA tournament bid.
The Longhorns picked the right time of the year to beat their first ranked
opponent.
Iowa State came into the game ranked 25th in the
Associated Press college basketball poll.
Texas defeated the Cyclones 71-65 in the second round of the Big 12
Conference Tournament. The Longhorns is
not a very deep team and with the loss of the fifth year senior Alexis Wangmene
the Texas freshmen would have to have productive minutes.
The Texas freshmen combined for 37 points and 21
rebounds. The Longhorns have made the
NCAA tournament for the last 13 consecutive years. Freshman point guard Myck Kabongo said, “We
do not want to be remembered as the Texas team that broke the NCAA streak.”
First team All-Big 12 First Team player Royce White of Iowa
State said, “My performance was not good enough, especially when you think
about the first five minutes is the most important and I came out and turned it
over.”
Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg said, “It’s disappointing
to go out in the first round down here especially with all the fans we had in
attendance. I thought the key to the
game was a nine minute stretch in the second half. They outscored us by 19 points in that
stretch and that’s the ballgame.”
In the second half the Cyclones went on a 9-2 run to take a
40-29 advantage with 17:13 left in the game.
The younger Longhorns did not get discouraged. They battled their way back to take the lead after
Kabongo made a basket and was fouled to make it 45-44 with 13:23 left.
The Horns pushed their lead to as many as 8 points, 55-47
with 9:33 remaining. The Cyclones did
not quit and fought their way back to tie the game at 59 on a Chris Babb free
throw with 4:39 left.
With the score at 65 with 52 seconds left, J’Covan Brown took the game into his own
hands. He drove the ball to the basket
and was fouled by Scott Christopherson. Brown
made the free throw to give Texas a three point lead 68-65.
Chris Allen made an unforced turnover with 9 seconds left to
end any hopes of the Cyclones.
Texas head Coach Rick Barnes said, “I told my guys after the
game that I’ve coached a lot of
basketball games and we’ve had a lot of different teams, but I’m not sure we’re any more proud of the effort these guys gave
tonight.”
Texas plays the second seed Missouri Tigers in the late game
on Friday. The estimate tipoff for the
game is at 9 pm central 30 minutes after the Kansas and Baylor game.
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