Max Abmas hits game-winning shot to lift Texas over Louisville
Texas survived and remains undefeated (4-0) on the season Sunday thanks to guard Max Abmas, who drained a game-winning jump shot as time expired in the Longhorns’ 81-80 win against Louisville in the Saatva Empire Classic.
Abmas joined the team this offseason through the transfer portal after spending the first four seasons of his collegiate career at Oral Roberts and is already coming up big just four games into his tenure as a Longhorn. He played a team-high 38 minutes on Sunday with his 13th and 14th points of the game coming on his game-winning shot, as he discussed what was going through his mind in the epic final moment after the game.
“I was just thinking go win,” Abmas said. “We had seven seconds left there, had enough time to take a couple dribbles and get to my spot and I knocked it down.”
Abmas came from humble beginnings as an unranked high school prospect of out of Jesuit College Prep in Dallas, receiving only four offers out of high school.
He’s come a long way since then following a decorated career at ORU and a memorable moment in just his fourth game with Texas, with Abmas also opening up after the game about the impact of hitting a buzzer-beating shot in Madison Square Garden.
“Man it feels amazing. I mean as a kid you just dream of all this, being able to play in a big venue like this, and so for us to go out there and get the win I mean it’s just great,” Abmas said.
Like Abmas, Virginia transfer Kadin Shedrick also joined the team this offseason and had a huge impact in Sunday’s win making an impact on both ends of the floor. Shedrick ended the night with a career-high 27 points along with seven rebounds, three steals, and a block as his fingerprints were all over the Longhorns’ win too.
“I thought we fought the whole game,” Abmas said. “I think we’re resilient, the game of basketball is of runs, a bunch of runs, ups and downs. So through all that, we stayed level-headed and we were able to come away with a victory.”
Texas had to battle on Sunday in a game that featured 21 lead changes and 14 ties. But the journey to the Big Apple isn’t done for them yet, as they’ll face the No. 5 ranked defending national champion UConn Huskies on Monday for the Saatva Empire Classic championship.