FINAL: Longhorns steer West Virginia right out of town, 66-49

Cameron Ridley and the long arms of Texas are giving West Virginia a beating in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The final game of the Big 12 quarterfinals wasn’t worth the wait.

The West Virginia Mountaineers—possessors of the No. 6 seed and aspirations of an extended weekend—had another chance at Texas, but the result was even worse than the first two times.

Here is a recap of the live-game updates from the Sprint Center, where West Virginia suffered a 66-49 loss and a second straight one-and-done at the conference tournament:

TEXAS 66, WEST VIRGINIA 49 (Final)
A few seconds before the horn, Gary Browne sinks the most meaningless 3-pointer in Big 12 tournament history and WVU’s stay in Kansas City is finished. Brandon Watkins scores 10 off the bench to give West Virginia SOMEBODY in double-figures. Terry Henderson adds eight as the Mountaineers (17-15) give back all the momentum derived from the Kansas upset. … Eron Harris and Juwan Staten—the backcourt tandem that averaging 36 points—combined for seven points on 2-of-16 shooting. West Virginia’s entire starting five produced just 20 points.
TEXAS 60, WEST VIRGINIA 36 (3:22 second half)
Rick Barnes lifted his final starter at around the five-minute mark, and the garbage-time parade continues. (Holmes departs with 20 and Felix 16 as they combined on 13-of-20 shooting.) Staten’s night appears finished after an ankle injury. The All-Big 12 player suffered through a brutal evening, as did his teammates, and you wonder what the mindset will be going into the NIT.
TEXAS 49, WEST VIRGINIA 22 (11:43 second half)
Nate Adrian hit a 3 from the right wing, and Bob Huggins’ perimeter-oriented team is now 1-of-11 from the perimeter. … Staten is playing at a million miles-per-hour in an attempt to jumpstart WVU, but he’s 1-of-11 himself and has just four points. … I’m reminded of a quote from Tuesday, when we asked Baylor’s Scott Drew if pre-qualified NCAA teams were at a disadvantage against hungrier teams in their league tournaments. Drew essentially said desperate teams can be too desperate, falling victim to their drive to make things happen. “Players wind up trying to do things they can’t do,” he said. “I’d prefer my team to be playing loose.”
TEXAS 35, WEST VIRGINIA 14 (halftime)
If West Virginia needs a pick-me-up, it should remember that it also trailed Texas by 21 during the second half in Morgantown on Jan. 13 and managed to make the game competitive late. … But enough with the history; let’s discuss the train wreck that’s occurring tonight. Eron Harris has missed all three shots and isn’t faring much better on defense. The Mountaineers are 0-of-8 from 3-point range and they’ve had four shots blocked.
TEXAS 35, WEST VIRGINIA 14 (halftime)
After a 6-for-33 shooting half, the Mountaineers have nowhere to go but up. Of course they’ll need to go waaaaay up to threaten Texas in the second half. The Longhorns have 11 points from Holmes, 10 from Felix and six from freshman Martez Walker, who converted a four-point play upon being bumped by Staten while nailing a shot right in front of the WVU bench. … Noreen’s five points are topping WVU, while Watkins has four, Staten three and Williams two. That’s the first time I can recall listing ALL of team’s scorers at halftime.
TEXAS 35, WEST VIRGINIA 14 (halftime)
Having some fun with fellow scribe Mitch Vingle, who just tweeted: “f nothing else this should assure that Juwan Staten returns next season.” To which I hastily replied: “I was thinking this might lead him to declare at halftime.” … Staten is 1-of-9 from the floor, but in his defense, he’s not hurting the team’s FG percentage that much.
TEXAS 31, WEST VIRGINIA 10 (3:13 first half)
Thanks to a Kevin Noreen putback, West Virginia has pulled even with Javan Felix at 10-all. I wouldn’t have guessed that the Mountaineers could shoot 5-of-29 blindfolded in a wind tunnel, but what do I know. I actually picked these guys to upset Texas tonight.
TEXAS 29, WEST VIRGINIA 8 (5:04 first half)
After Wednesday’s shootaround, WVU freshman Devin Williams surmised that “the jitters and the nervousness should be out.” Well, it may nto be completely the fault of jitters or nerves, but West Virginia is completely out of sorts and out of this game right now.
TEXAS 23, WEST VIRGINIA 8 (6:34 first half)
Texas is shooting 52 percent from the floor and the Mountaineers are juuusssssst a bit lower—at 16 percent. Juwan Staten has opened the game 1-of-7, with his only basket a breakaway layup.
TEXAS 19, WEST VIRGINIA 4 (11:52 first half)
Brandon Watkins has two baskets for West Virginia. What’s more, Brandon Watkins has THE two baskets for West Virginia, which is 2-for-16 through eight unbelievably bad minutes.
TEXAS 12, WEST VIRGINIA 0 (15:52 first half)
Jonathan Holmes’ gimpy right knee looks pretty solid so far, as the Texas forward has seven points in four minutes. West Virginia started 0-for-8 from the floor, while the Longhorns are 4-of-7 and squashing any notion that they aren’t as hungry to play as WVU.
PREGAME NOTES
Bob Huggins’ sideline stool, used by the coach throughout the regular-season, made the trip to Kansas City. However, the Big 12 forced West Virginia to sacrifice a bench seat in order to bring the stool, which Huggins has been using because an ailing hip makes it harder to get into and out of a regular chair.






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