The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
9-6,1-2Big 12
No. 19/20 West Virginia
13-1,3-0Big 12
Women's Basketball falls at No. 19/20 West Virginia, 68-63
01.12.2020 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns rally from 13 down to go ahead by four, but lose in last minute.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Texas came back from a 13-point, third-quarter deficit to lead by four points at the two-minute mark, but No. 19/20 West Virginia scored 12 of the game's last 15 points to hand the Longhorns a 68-63 Big 12 Conference defeat on Sunday afternoon at WVU Coliseum.
Texas (9-6, 1-2) held a one-point lead with 44 seconds remaining, but a second-chance, three-pointer by Kysre Gondrezick -- following her missed free throw – put the Mountaineers (13-1, 3-0) ahead to stay. Texas made only one of its last eight shots from the floor and did not hit a field goal in the game's last 2:38.
Sug Sutton scored 18 points and Charli Collier had 11 for the Longhorns. Joyner Holmes scored nine and had 10 rebounds. Tynice Martin scored 23 Gondrezick had 21 for West Virginia.
The Longhorns got off to a slow start, falling behind by a 7-0 margin. Texas closed the gap to five points on four occasions, but West Virginia finished the first quarter with a 17-10 lead. The Mountaineers shot 53 percent from the floor. Texas hit 39 percent. Holmes and Sutton each scored four points in the initial period.
Texas scored the second quarter's first six points, narrowing the Mountaineer lead to 17-16 with 7:52 left before halftime. West Virginia scored the next six, and then elongated its lead to 11 points on three occasions – the last being a 34-23 halftime lead. The Longhorns turned the ball over 12 times during the first half and shot 37 percent from the floor. Collier led UT with six points and three rebounds on the halftime stat sheet.
West Virginia had two players in double figures at halftime, Gondrezick with 11 and Martin with 10.
West Virginia raced to a 13-point lead early in the third quarter, but five straight points by Higgs put the Longhorns within eight, 40-32, with 4:59 remaining in the period. Later, with West Virginia leading by 10, Texas went on a 6-0 run, highlighted by a three-pointer by Joane Allen-Taylor and a bucket by Holmes. That made the score 42-38 with 4:31 left. An exchange of baskets again reduced the spread to four at the 2:49 mark. Sutton's two free throws cut the margin to three and her 15-foot jumper trimmed the deficit to one with 18 seconds left in the third quarter.
Then, just before the horn sounded, Sutton launched a jumper off of a West Virginia turnover that gave Texas a 48-47 lead through three quarters – completing a period-ending 9-0 Texas run. Sutton bucketed the last six points. UT outscored he Mountaineers, 25-13, in the penultimate quarter.
West Virginia scored the first five points of the fourth quarter, but Texas – thanks to buckets by Sutton, Collier and Holmes – then went on an 8-0 run to give the Horns a 56-52 lead with 6:12 left in the game. After the Mountaineers tied the score with four straight free throws, a jumper by Sutton and two free throws by Collier reestablished the Texas four-point lead, 60-56, with 2:08 left in the game.
After two free throws by the Mountaineers, Holmes hit the second of two free throws to put Texas ahead by three at the 1:24 mark. Then, Gondrezick's free throw and a three-pointer off of a rebound of her missed second free throw gave the Mountaineers a 63-61 lead at the 41-second mark. Another free throw gave West Virginia a 64-61 advantage with 25 seconds remaining. Sutton's two buckets from the charity stripe pulled Texas to within one, 64-63, but the Mountaineers hit four three throws within the last eight seconds to take their five-point win.
KEY STATISTICS
- The Longhorns started, Holmes, Sutton, Collier, Celeste Taylor and Jada Underwood.
- Texas leads the all-time series with West Virginia, 12-7.
- Texas shot 37 percent from the floor, 25 percent from behind the arc, and 67 percent from the free throw line.
- West Virginia hit 42 percent from the floor, 40 percent of its three-pointers, and sank 56 percent of its free throws.
- Texas got 18 second-chance points, 16 points from the bench, and 28 points in the paint.
- Texas won the rebounding battle, 45-37.
TEXAS HEAD COACH KAREN ASTON
Credit West Virginia for coming ready to play and for finishing. I thought we made a good run and changed the game somewhat with some more energy off of our bench. They made more plays down the stretch. We made some defensive mistakes, failure to block out, and fouled some times that it was not necessary to put them on the line. I'm proud of our team for coming back but have no explanation for why we didn't show up for almost two and one-half quarters.
Does it all come down to that offensive rebound (following Gondrezick's missed free throw and leading to her three-pointer)?
You never want to say it was all because of one play, but Big-12 games are going to come down to possessions. I knew that needing a three at the end was going to be tough because of their switching defense knows how to handle that situation. I thought we did the right thing by taking the aggressive two, which we got fouled on the possession before. But at some point, if you need a three you're going to have to shoot a three – so you can't get yourself in that situation. But, honestly, I would think you could make a box out when the game was on the line. But the way we played for two, almost two and one-half quarters, is more the reason. I mean, you can't show up and play like that against a team like West Virginia. And credit to them for being ready to play, because we weren't.
UP NEXT
Texas returns home to host Texas Tech on Wednesday. Tip-off at the Frank Erwin Center is slated for 7 p.m. CT and the game will be nationally televised by the Longhorn Network. The game will be available on radio at 105.3 FM in Austin and online at TexasSports.com/audio.
