Guards provide narrow escape for No. 10 Mountaineers at Texas

West Virginia guard Jevon Carter scored 11 of his 15 points during the final 10 minutes of a 74-72 win at Texas on Saturday.

 

West Virginia guard Jevon Carter knifed into the lane, double-clutching a layup through the arms of 6-foot-8 Shaquille Cleare and 6-11 Jarrett Allen.

The junior who described his game as “having no fear” saved the No. 10 Mountaineers from an upset against shorthanded Texas, scoring 11 of his 15 points late in a 74-72 escape in Austin.

“Down the stretch West Virginia’s guards made some big-time shots,” said Longhorns coach Shaka Smart. “Jevon Carter, especially, made some big ones — even when we had a hand up.”

BOX SCORE: West Virginia 74, Texas 72

Four days after blistering top-ranked Baylor 87-68 thanks to plus-17 turnover margin, West Virginia (15-2, 4-1) finished only plus-four at the Erwin Center. Texas (7-10, 1-4) held the Mountaineers without a basket for almost seven minutes to open the second half and led 53-47 after a 3-pointer by freshman Andrew Jones.

Said coach Bob Huggins: “It was a hard game to play, hard game to coach, hard game to watch.”

Struggling to get offense from its big men against the Longhorns zone, West Virginia saw its guards combine for 52 points, including second-unit warriors Teyvon Myers scoring a career-high 16 and Tarik Phillip adding 14.

The backcourt scored 27 of the team’s 29 points over the final 11 minutes.

Leading scorer Esa Ahmad produced five turnovers and only four points, failing to score a field goal for the first time in 22 games dating back to last February. Nathan Adrian played a season-low 20 minutes, slowed by sickness and first-half foul trouble.

Yet with 37 seconds left Adrian out-jumped the NBA-caliber freshman Allen for an offensive rebound and was fouled. Instead of Texas having a chance to tie, Adrian made two free throws to keep WVU ahead 72-68.

“Nate gets a huge offensive rebound to get us where we had some control of the game,” Huggins said.
“He’s sick, so he had enough energy to be able to do that. If we had played him the way we normally play him, he wouldn’t have had any energy.”

Allen finished with 19 points and seven rebounds and freshman reserve Jones made four 3-pointers on his way to scoring 17 before fouling out with 3:23 left.

With the Longhorns missing top scorer Tevin Mack (indefinite suspension) and senior guard Kendall Yancy (foot injury), Smart’s starters averaged 33 minutes compared to WVU’s 22.

“I thought our guys really fought,” Smart said. “If you look at the minutes, we’ve got 36, 33, 35, 38 — and West Virginia’s a team that makes you work every second in the game.”

With the game tied at 60-all, Carter hit the go-ahead free throw and sank a high-arching jumper.

Then came his unlikely basket at the rim, splitting Allen and Cleare to put West Virginia up 70-67 with 1:39 remaining.

“If you had to point to one guy that was a difference maker, it was him as he made big-time plays and finishes,” Smart said. “Most of those possessions, we defended pretty well but he had a rainbow 18-footer, he had an unbelievable finish in the lane. He was the guy that imposed his will more than anybody else upon the game.”

3-point misfires

Clutch nights from the guards did not translate into 3-point shooting, where WVU finished 4-of-18. That included an 0-for-6 by Daxter Miles.

“We had some guys that struggled. Dax had some open shots, but he really struggled,” Huggins said. “Thank God Teyvon came in played well.

That’s been our team all year. If you think about it one day someone will have 20 and then the next day a different player will have 20.”

Big 12 implications

With No. 2 Kansas climbing to 5-0 in the league by edging Oklahoma State 87-80, and No. 1 Baylor bouncing back to win 77-68 at No. 25 Kansas State, the Mountaineers’ Big 12 hopes couldn’t have stomached a loss in Austin.

Next up, they entertain Oklahoma on Wednesday night and visit K-State on Saturday before hosting the Jayhawks on Jan. 24.

Quotable

“This is as loose with the ball as we’ve been all year.” — Huggins after the Mountaineers committed 15 turnovers

“We had a chance to upset a top-10 team. We were right there.” — Texas forward Shaquille Cleare, who scored a season-best 12 points in a career-high 33 minutes.





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