Defense on Clemente gives Texas the win
Texas sophomore guard Dogus Balbay sneaks around Kansas State sophomore forward Ron Anderson on his way to the basket during Thursday's game at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. The Longhorns defeated the Wildcats 61-58.
OKLAHOMA CITY – On Jan. 31 in Austin, Texas, Kansas State and Texas dueled in an 81-81 overtime shootout. During Friday’s rematch in the Big 12 Championship quarterfinals, the two teams fought through a slugfest.
No. 5 Texas outlasted No. 4 Kansas State, 61-58, Thursday afternoon at the Ford Center.
“Kansas State plays as hard as any team we’ve played all year and we know that,” Texas coach Rick Barnes said. “We knew it was going to be a very physical game.”
For most of the game, the two teams were mired in a low-scoring dogfight. Neither team led by more than five points in the first half.
The difference in the game was Texas’ ability to contain Kansas State sharpshooter Denis Clemente. Clemente averaged 15.6 points in the regular season, and scored a Big 12-record 44 points in Kansas State’s win over Texas in January.
Barnes turned to freshman Varez Ward to add some physicality to defend Clemente and help try to deny him ball.
“He’s hard to guard because he’s always coming at you full speed,” Ward said. “I just wanted to come in and slow him down a little bit and just take him out of his game.”
Clemente scored his first points of the day with nine seconds remaining in the first half, when he hit a contested 3-pointer to give Kansas State a two-point lead at halftime.
With 11 minutes to play in the game, Clemente missed a 3-pointer from the top of the arc, allowing Texas freshman Varez Ward to score a tough basket in transition. What could have been a 1-point deficit for Kansas State had Clemente made the shot transitioned into a six-point lead to Texas, the game’s largest margin.
“All of our guards took it as a challenge this game,” junior Dexter Pittman said of Texas trying to slow down Clemente.“
Clemente finished the game with only 10 points on 4-of-20 shooting from the field, as Kansas State shot 29.2 percent from the field for the game. Clemente had a semi-open look for three at the buzzer to send the game to overtime, but the shot came up short off of the rim, giving Texas the win.
Although Clemente’s disappearing act was the dominating theme of the game, it was Pittman that powered Texas to a win on both ends of the floor. Pittman led Texas with 19 points, 20 rebounds and four blocks.
Texas’ win advances the Longhorns to tomorrow’s semifinal game against No. 9 Baylor in a battle of universities an hour away from each other. One student reporter asked Barnes whether or not Texas would be on “upset alert” tomorrow.
“Every time we’ve been in games with ‘em, they’ve been hard-fought games,” Barnes said. “They’re playing with, I’m sure right now, loads of confidence and, so, upset alert? I don’t look at it that way.”
