Longhorns have no answer for BYU’s torrid shooting in 84-72 road loss
Winning on the road in the Big 12 Conference is darn tough in any circumstance, but all but impossible when the home team shoots 64 percent from the floor.
Such was the case on Saturday when No. 21 BYU, the top 3-point shooting team in the league, changed tack and went to the hole with sustained success in an 84-72 win over Texas before a capacity crowd of 17,878 fans at the rollicking Marriott Center in Provo, Utah.
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Texas, riding high after consecutive wins against then-No. 9 Baylor at home and on the road versus No. 11 Oklahoma, had no answer for BYU in the first-ever game between the teams as Big 12 members. The Cougars’ shooting percentage was their best of the season thanks to a 40-26 edge in points in the paint. BYU entered the game averaging just 25 points per game in the paint in league play.
BYU, which takes an average of 31 3-point attempts per game and hoisted up 38 in a home loss to Houston on Tuesday, tried just 17 shots from beyond the arc on Saturday and made seven of them, one less than the Longhorns.
Noah Waterman and Jaxson Robinson led the Cougars (15-5, 3-4 Big 12) with 17 points apiece while Fousseyni Traore added 16 points on 6 of 7 shooting for the Cougars and Richie Saunders and Spencer Johnson had 11 points each
Dylan Disu paced the Longhorns (14-6, 3-4 Big 12) with 19 points and seven rebounds. Chendall Weaver added a season-high 13 points with Max Abmas scoring 12 and Tyrese Hunter hitting for 10 for Texas, which had a two-game winning streak, both against ranked teams, snapped.
Texas shot just 35.7 percent from the field in the second half.
BYU led by just three points at halftime but pushed its lead to double digits three minutes into the second half before decisively pulling away, going up by as many as 17 points with 8:31 left and never allowing the Longhorns to get closer than nine points the rest of the way.
Texas led by as many as seven points in the early minutes, going up 13-6 on Ithiel Horton’s 3-pointer at the 15:40 mark of the first half. BYU rallied to tie the game at 19 on Saunders’ jumper from beyond the arc with 11:14 to play before halftime and swept to a 41-31 advantage when Robinson hit a layup with 2:52 remaining.
The Longhorns swung back, reeling off a 10-1 run capped by a jumper by Abmas with 20 seconds to go in the half to bring Texas to within a point. Johnson then drove the lane for a layup at the buzzer the granted the Cougars a 44-41 lead at the break.
Disu led all scorers with 11 points before halftime while Waterman and Robinson tallied 9 points each to pace the Cougars. BYU shot an amazing 65.4 percent in the first half and outscored the Longhorns 28-14 in the paint.
The Cougars took control of the game with an 8-2 run to begin the second half and stoked their lead to 72-57 when Saunders poured in a 3-pointer with 8:31 to play. Texas culled its deficit to single digits on Disu’s layup with 4:24 remaining but it was far too little too late.
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Texas has little time to lick its collective wounds as No. 4 Houston heads to Austin on Monday for a titanic battle at Moody Center.
