Texas surges back from 18-point deficit to top TCU, 79-75

At a certain point in the first half of No. 10 Texas’ battle at the Moody Center with the No. 17 TCU Horned Frogs, the Longhorns were down 18 points. TCU was 14-of-28 from the field at that juncture, with 13 of those attempts being dunks or layups. Meanwhile, Texas was a mediocre 10-of-29 from the field, coughing the ball up and playing lackadaisical defense.

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Texas’ defensive rotations were slow, TCU was making shots, and even the 50-50 deflections were being earned by Jamie Dixon’s Frogs. Texas battled back to make it a 13-point game at half. On the other side of halftime with a ton of credit due to Sir’Jabari Rice, the Longhorns would surge back to make it a tied game.

From there, the final minutes of the game became a battle of two teams not looking to drop off pace in the early portion of the Big 12 title rice. Even with all the off-court distractions that currently surround the program, Texas’ experienced group of Rice, Dylan Disu, and Timmy Allen guided the Longhorns to a come-from-behind 79-75 victory thanks to a 12-8 advantage in the final 4:39 of the game.

The Longhorns completed their largest comeback since the Oklahoma game at the Erwin Center in 2013. As has been the case all season, veterans boosted Texas to the win. Allen scored 17 points. Disu had 14 points. Marcus Carr scored 11, and Rice added 15 — all in the second half.

The win helps Texas keep pace with the group of 4-0 teams at the top of the Big 12 standings. It also gives interim head coach Rodney Terry another quality win on his team’s continually improving NCAA tournament resume in the face of everything surrounding the program.

And through it all, Texas overcame a dismal first half in order to win the two portions of the second half that were integral to taking home the win.

1H 20:00 – 1H 0:00

Texas played an uninspired first 20 minutes of basketball on both ends of the floor versus TCU on Wednesday night. The Longhorns surrendered possession way too often, totaling eight in the first half.

The Horned Frogs looked to run as a result and did so to the tune of 10 fastbreak points. Mike Miles had 10 points in the first 20 minutes, directing traffic and paving his own path down the lane with ease.

Defensive intensity was lacking for the Longhorns, while the offensive want-to was there for TCU. Dixon’s team used the size advantage provided by players like the big-for-a-guard Miles, the beefy Eddie Lampkin, and the platoon of Chuck O’Bannon and Xavier Cork to win the rebounding battle 22-17 in the first half.

On the offensive end for the Longhorns, the ball found the bottom of the net at a good clip when the Longhorns were shooting from inside the arc. However, Texas was a putrid 2-of-14 from three during the first half, with Tyrese Hunter accumulating the Horns’ only two makes.

Texas cut the TCU lead from 18 with under three minutes remaining down to 13, a five-point change made possible by Hunter, Allen, and Disu.

It made the deficit much more manageable, and set up Texas’ second-half surge that erased the woes of the first half and made Wednesday night’s affair a game.

2H 20:00 – 2H 4:39

Terry’s squad was able to turn TCU’s lead to just 10 by the first media timeout. Then, the Horns got it all the way down to a two-point game with 12:10 left.

The defensive lapses that had plagued Texas in most of the first half were much fewer in number in the second, but TCU took advantage of the Longhorns’ momentary lack of focus to push the lead from two to 10 in under a minute of game time. O’Bannon nailed a three, Emanuel Miller laid one in on the other end, and Damion Baugh converted a three-point play to make it a double-digit margin game once again.

From this point, Rice and Disu led the Texas comeback. Between the 20:00 mark and the 4:39 point when the game was tied, Rice and Disu scored 10 points apiece. Others’ efforts were important in the comeback, as Allen found a groove in the midrange and even Arterio Morris added a hustle bucket on a tip-in to keep the game close.

Once Rice hit two free throws with 4:39 remaining, everything that had happened in the previous 35:21 was out the window.

It became a test of who could execute in crunch time, and both teams provided quite the show.

2H 4:39 – 2H 0:00

The final stretch began with Miller making a jumper followed by one in response from Carr. Miles came down and hit a tough jumper, then Disu scored on a layup on the other end.

The final TV timeout came with 3:22 left, and TCU turned the ball over on its first two possessions out of the break. Both teams then made buckets, before TCU failed to convert a three.

Then, for the first time all night, Carr nailed a shot from distance to give Texas its first lead since the 8-7 mark with just over a minute left.

TCU now had to play from behind, and thanks to Miller the Frogs had a chance to tie it with a successful and-one.

Miller missed the chance, and Rice then took over. He rebounded the missed opp by Miller, then made two free throws on the other end.

Miles missed the front end of the 1-and-1 in response, and Texas celebrated a four-point win after Rice hit 1-of-2 to finish with 15 points.

Texas was a totally different team in the second half. A 39 percent shooting effort became a 59 percent clip in the second half. The Longhorns made two three-pointers in the first half on 14 attempts. They made the same amount in the second half on only two attempts, and both were at pivotal moments of the game.

Turnovers were cut down significantly, from eight to three. And most importantly, the Longhorns didn’t give TCU extra possessions in the second half, winning the rebounding battle in the second 20 minutes 18-to-11.

Texas cleaned up its act in the second half, and was able to play a much cleaner brand of basketball to eek out a four-point win in Big 12 play.