Tied at 64 with just under four minutes to play, Texas found itself going down to the wire once again.
Having seen an 11-point halftime lead erased, more often than not the Longhorns have come out on the wrong end of close interconference battles.
However, with the game and maybe the season on the line, the man who has bailed Texas out all season long did it again.
Bottled up for most of the day, graduate guard Max Abmas took over down the stretch for the Longhorns, scoring Texas’ final 13 points in a masterful crunch-time performance. The Oral Roberts transfer, who moved into 13th in the NCAA all-time leading scorer records in the performance, once again demonstrated his clutch gene in a 77-66 road win over No. 25 TCU.
After a costly turnover from sophomore guard Chendall Weaver with the game deadlocked, TCU looked in prime position to take the lead or head to the free throw line, with its leading scorer Emanuel Miller barreling down at Abmas on the fast break, standing seven inches over him. However, in an exclamation point on a day of impressive defense from the point guard, who at times this season has been hunted by opposing offenses, Abmas perfectly swiped the ball from Miller as he was going up for the layup.
Abmas raced up the court after the takeaway and navigated seamlessly into the lane for an and-one layup, and on the next two possessions, following some textbook crunch-time defense from the Longhorns, Abmas nailed back-to-back deep threes to silence a once-raucous whiteout crowd for good. He hit all four of his free throws to seal the deal in a 21-point outing, and due to his heroics, Texas gets a much-needed injection of energy after Monday’s heartbreaker against Houston.
The Longhorns got off to a rough start, finding themselves down 19-10 early behind carelessness with the basketball and poor shooting. The team clawed back, however, going on a 33-13 run and leading 43-32 at the half.
Graduate forward Dylan Disu was the engine for Texas getting back into the game, knocking down a pair of threes in a 10-point first half. Additionally, he was effective defensively throughout as he continues to step into his role as Texas’ full-time starting big, finishing with two steals and two blocks and helping shut down TCU’s offense in the final minutes.
Weaver, who made his first start for head coach Rodney Terry, continued to star in his role. The UT-Arlington transfer’s hustle shows beyond the stat sheet, locking down opposing ball-handlers in man-to-man defense and skying for rebounds. Texas’ small-ball unit hasn’t seen much tread this season, but following today’s result, it can be assumed Terry will stick with it moving forward.
The edge throughout the game was Texas’ advantage in rebounding. Following the loss to Houston, in which the Longhorns were exploited on the boards, especially in overtime, they dominated TCU, out-rebounding the Horned Frogs 34-21. Texas doubled TCU’s offensive rebounding count with 14 and scored 17 second-chance points to TCU’s five.
The Longhorns came out flat to start the second half, scoring just once from the field in the first five minutes and eventually letting TCU tie things up at 57 around the eight-minute mark. Texas went on a quick 7-0 run to make it a 64-57 game before the Horned Frogs rattled off seven points of their own to knot things up at 64.
Texas snaps a two-game losing streak with the win and improves to 4–5 in conference play. The reigning Big 12 Champions up-and-down season continues as it returns home to take on No. 12 Iowa State on Tuesday.
