Texas coughs up big lead, stumbles at finish in loss at home to UCF

AUSTIN – It might be time to push the panic button for the Texas basketball team, who sleepwalked through the final 14 minutes and found a way to drop its third Big 12 Conference game in four outings, this one a 77-71 defeat at the hands of UCF on Wednesday at Moody Center.

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The Longhorns have played twice at hone in league contests and have dropped both games, first to Texas Tech and now to the Knights, the team picked to finish last in the Big 12’s preseason poll.

The writing was on the wall in Wednesday’s game, in which Texas (12-5, 1-3 in Big 12 play) squandered a 16-point first half lead before building it back to 55-40 after a jumper by Ithiel Horton with 14:30 to play. But the Longhorns could not get the stops they needed the rest of the way as UCF came on strong, taking the lead at 63-62 on a Darius Johnson 3-pointer with 7:21 remaining.

Texas answered with a 3-pointer by Horton to go back in front. After the teams traded the lead, UCF went ahead for good when Shemarri Allen hit a layup with 2:51 remaining, completely taking the air out of the building and any momentum away from the Longhorns.

The Knights expanded their lead to seven points on a pair of free throws by Jaylin Sellers with 31 seconds left and Texas never got closer than four points the rest of the way.

“I don’t think that there’s anything wrong per se with us,” Texas forward Dylan Disu said.  “We just need to figure out how to play as hard as we possibly can for 40 straight minutes. And once we do that we’ll have some more success.”

Sellers poured in 24 points off the bench to lead a balanced Knights offensive attack. Allen added 17 points for UCF (11-5, 2-2 Big 12), with Johnson scoring 11 and C.J. Walker and Omar Payne scoring 10 each.

Horton, who earned the start against his former team and made the most of it, led the Longhorns (12-5, 1-3 Big 12) with 20 points while Max Abmas and Dillon Mitchell added 15 points each. Texas shot just 34.5 percent in the second half, with the Knights’ zone defense limiting the Longhorns’ scoring chances and the opportunity for offensive rebounds.

The Longhorns scored 15 of the game’s initial 17 points including a 13-0 surge capped by a free throw by Mitchell and a 15-2 lead five minutes into the first half. A dunk by Kadin Shedrick with 12:34 to play in the half pushed the Texas lead to 16 points, the biggest lead of the first half.

UCF swung back, forging an 8-1 run punctuated by a 3-pointeer from Sellers to pull to within 23-16 with 7:42 remaining before halftime. A 3-pointer by Johnson at the 4:12 mark culled the Knights’ deficit to 32-26 and UCF was still as close as six points until the Longhorns reeled off a 7-2 burst over the final 2:25 to carry a 44-32 advantage to the break.

Horton led Texas with 14 points before halftime, with Sellers matching that total for the Knights. The Longhorns outshot UCF 68 percent to 48 percent over the first 20 minutes and forced the Knights into 11 turnovers. 

Texas led 55-40 after a jumper by Horton with 14:30 left. That’s when the Knights turned it up a notch, roaring back to take their first lead of the game when Johnson canned a 3-pointer with 7:21 to play to make it 63-62.

The Knights entered the game 34^th in the nation and fourth in the conference on points allowed (64.7 per game) and had five of its last six opponents, including No. 3 Kansas and No. 20 BYU, to 63 points or less. Texas eclipsed that figure on a 3-pointer by Horton with under seven minutes to play, but the end was near.

“We got off to a really good start in this ballgame, worked the game plan for the better part of the game,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said. “You know down the stretch we’ve just we got to find ways to finish games and being able to close out.

“There’s no quit in that room over there. I mean, every night you only keep it for one night whether you win or lose, and it’s on to the next you know really good opponent. You don’t have time to have a hangover and feel sorry for yourself. You got to continue to roll up your sleeves, go back to work.”

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Things now get considerably tougher for the Longhorns, with their remaining four games this month against teams ranked in the Top 25. That gauntlet begins on Saturday with an 11 a.m. CDT clash against No. 9 Baylor and continues with road games at No. 15 Oklahoma and No. 20 BYU before a titanic battle with No. 5 Houston at Moody Center on Jan. 29.