AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Longhorns couldn’t stop a three-point barrage by the Virginia Cavaliers in the first half of a Wednesday blowout at the Moody Center, falling behind 19 points at halftime and allowing the lead by the visitors to reach 28 points in the second half of a game that was never competitive after an early 12-point run by the Hoos on four made threes.
Texas ultimately fell 88-69 as the partisan crowd was forced to reserve its loudest cheers for the national anthem, an appearance by Steve Sarkisian on the video board, and the halftime appearance by Red Panda. Down by 24 points at the under-eight timeout in the second half, the crowd headed to the exits en masse.
And that was fair.
The individual statistics of it don’t particularly matter, although Texas did only have two players reach double digits in scoring while Virginia had five — the Cavaliers flat-out beat the Longhorns in just about every way imaginable and perhaps even some that one wouldn’t care to imagine.
In the overall stats, head coach Ryan Odom’s team was efficient shooting from the floor — 52.8 percent overall and 50-percent from three — so the nation’s best offensive rebounding team had extremely few opportunities to retrieve their own misses because they just didn’t miss. Texas, on the other hand, did miss, hitting 4-of-19 three-point attempts (21.1 percent) and finishing at 40.7 percent from the floor.
The opening set play produced an effective roll for Texas sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis, who finished his dunk through contact, but missed his free-throw attempt. On the next possession, the big Lithuanian’s willingness to run the court produced early post positioning and led to a paint finish over his left shoulder with his shooting hand but not his preferred shoulder. An off-the-dribble three by graduate guard Tramon Mark to beat the shot clock concluded the scoring for Texas at the under-16 timeout when the Horns trailed 8-7 behind a three by Virginia forward Thisj De Ridder and a three-point play by Cavaliers center Johann Grunloh.
It was downhill for Texas from there.
Junior wing Dailyn Swain converted a trip to the line earned before the break before Virginia hit a three as the shot clock expired, the first of three consecutive made threes that extended the lead to 17-9 and prompted a timeout by Texas head coach Sean Miller, frustrated with his team’s pick-and-roll coverage.
Contact on a three-point attempt by Pope and a paint shot by Swain went uncalled and the Cavaliers responded with another three to extend the run to 12-0 — an unsurprising barrage from a team that entered the game attempting 45.1 percent of its shots from beyond the arc and hitting at 36.5 percent — to take a 20-11 lead into the second media break thanks to 5-of-7 shooting from three.
A good baseline out-of-bounds play produced a short baseline jumper for senior guard Jordan Pope before Vokietaitis failed to convert on a nice spin to the rim from the block. The Cavaliers extended the lead to 14 points on a busted defensive coverage that led to a dunk and another dunk in transition when Vokietaitis turned it over on a post move.
Having burned a timeout earlier in the half, Miller couldn’t afford to use another to arrest the UVA momentum. A number of putback attempts at the rim finally resulted in a basket and Pope made a jumper off the dribble to stem the surge with the Cavaliers up 27-17 at the under-eight timeout.
It didn’t matter.
The fullcourt pressure by Virginia finally produced a turnover by Texas, leading to an offensive rebound and second-chance bucket. On the next trip, the lead ballooned to 15 points when Longhorns junior guard Simeon Wilcher was caught with his hands down against a three-point shooter.
Texas struggled to reduce the separation between the two teams — a backdoor cut for a dunk by senior guard Chendall Weaver was a rare highlight for Texas during the first half — but Virginia did at least go through a 1-of-6 shooting stretch from three, mostly misses rather than well-contested shots.
When Weaver fouled one-time Texas transfer target Jacari White on a three for a four-point play and Virginia hit two more threes to end the first half, the Cavaliers went into halftime with a 46-27 lead thanks to 51.6-percent shooting overall and 50-percent shooting from three as the Horns struggled to execute defensively, especially in pick-and-roll situations, and played poorly on offense, finishing the first half minus-24 in three-point scoring.
In the second half, Texas managed to hang closer with Virginia, cutting down on the number of open-three point attempts, but continuing to struggle to create quality looks from behind the arc, transition baskets, or consistently convert opportunities in the paint with Vokietaitis struggling from the floor and the line.
Texas remains at the Moody Center for a Monday tuneup against a solid Southern team before a trip to face No. 5 UConn on Dec. 12 that may only be quality viewing for Huskies fans and the true masochists in the Longhorns fanbase.
