After bad loss to UCF, Texas Longhorns’ ‘survivor’s mentality’ carries them by No. 9 Baylor
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Big 12 Conference basketball parity was on full display this week for the Texas Longhorns.
After blowing a 16-point lead to Central Florida and losing 77-71 on Tuesday, the Longhorns rebounded massively and clipped No. 9 Baylor 75-73 at Moody Center on Saturday on a buzzer-beating layup by Tyrese Hunter.
It was a win the program needed after squandering such a big lead to an unranked opponent at home. Coupled with what happened during the postgame handshake line as head coach Rodney Terry lashed out at UCF players who were making the “horns down,” hand gesture, the team needed something positive. Terry apologized Saturday for the emotional outburst, and a great way to take the sting out of it was to beat one of the best teams in the country.
“We had to come in and have a survivor’s type mentality,” Terry said. “It’s the mentality we’ve tried to have all year, and I thought our guys did a great job of regrouping.”
When the defense failed them in the second half Tuesday, it helped save them Saturday. Baylor made one field goal in the final 9:10 of the game, a Jalen Bridges 3-pointer that tied the game at 75-75 with 0:05 remaining, while the Longhorns were 7 for 9 from the foul line to hold the Bears off.
Hunter’s game-winner came immediately after Bridges’ big shot. Rather than take a timeout and draw up a play, Hunter initiated the final possession with a quick inbound to Dylan Disu, who then shoveled the ball back to Hunter while he gained a head of steam toward the bucket. Hunter charged right at Baylor’s Langston Love, gave him a little shake, and then hung in the air before putting the ball softly against the backboard as Love sailed toward photographers on the end line trying to block the shot.
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“I knew we weren’t going to call timeout because that would have happened right away,” Hunter said of the final play. “I looked at the clock and was looking for Max (Abmas), but then Disu flashed for me. From there, I knew I had to get downhill and try to make a play.”
Terry said while the team practices special situations similar to what happened with Hunter, he didn’t want to give Baylor time to set up defense and just let one of his best playmakers do what he’s done all year.
“You call timeout and then you have to deal with full-court pressure, and then you have to deal with their changes in the half court, and have a play that works against man or zone, so you’ve got a lot of different strategies that go into play,” Terry said, “so we didn’t call timeout, didn’t overcoach, let the guys do what we do and what we practiced, and we got downhill and won the game.”
The win moved the Longhorns into a logjam at 2-3 in Big 12 play, but given the absolute meat grinder that’s the conference schedule, a win over Baylor should be a nice resume piece if the Longhorns play themselves into NCAA tournament consideration. They can’t rest on their laurels very long with two road trips next week against ranked opponents — Jan. 23 at No. 15 Oklahoma and Jan. 27 at No. 20 BYU — but the win was certainly one of the sweetest of the year.
“In order for us to be successful, we have to be together,” Disu said. “When we play for each other, play for RT, the coaching staff, we feel we can beat any team in the country. That’s what this win symbolizes for us. Whenever we do what we’re coached to do and play as hard as we possibly can, we can beat any team.”
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