With a chance to keep building momentum and push deeper into its final Big 12 tournament, Texas looked the part through one half, up double digits and smothering a Kansas State team it had already beaten this year. Instead, the Longhorns fell apart and packed their bags after just one round.
While the lead was not as great and the collapse not as spectacular as in the loss to Baylor, head coach Rodney Terry’s team is sure to have some déjà vu with the result, watching a comfortable halftime lead slip away right in front of them.
Texas started strong, racing out to a 9-2 lead behind aggressive defense. Kansas State responded with a 14-3 run to take the lead at 16-12, but Texas settled back down and hounded the Wildcats the rest of the half, holding them to just 13 points in 13 minutes to close the half and entering the break up 39-29.
Sophomore forward Dillon Mitchell and graduate guard Ithiel Horton picked up the slack in the first half, combining for 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting. Coupled with 10 points from graduate guard Max Abmas, along with a 9-of-24 half shooting the ball for Kansas State, Texas was in control.
However, Texas came out flat to start the second half, turning the ball over in three straight possessions and letting Kansas State trim the lead to three in under three minutes. Despite a necessary timeout, Texas’ offense couldn’t figure anything out, hitting just two field goals in the half’s first eight minutes and allowing Kansas State to retake the lead with under twelve minutes to play.
Kansas State stretched the lead to seven with less than nine minutes to play, and the Longhorns never seriously threatened the outcome as their shooting remained ice-cold. Abmas buried a pair of threes within 20 seconds to keep things interesting but ultimately was too little too late as the Wildcats hit the necessary free throws to seal the comeback win.
The wheels began to fall off for Texas when graduate forward Dylan Disu picked up two quick offensive fouls to start the half, checking out at the 18:31 mark and sitting until the 11:22 mark. He picked up his third foul within 30 seconds of re-entering the game, returning to the bench again for nearly five minutes. His inability to stay out of foul trouble has hurt the team all year, and on Wednesday it finally proved fatal.
After shouldering the offensive load in the first half, Horton and Mitchell shrank after the break, combining for just seven points in the second half and contributing to one of the ugliest halves the Longhorns have posted all season. Texas shot 9-of-31 in the period and 4-of-15 from a distance, missing several open looks and struggling to find any semblance of a rhythm.
Texas’ bid at a repeat as champions fell well short in its last Big 12 tournament, and it will exit the conference with a whimper rather than a bang. The Longhorns will have a long three days until finding out where they will slot into the NCAA tournament on Selection Sunday.
