KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Matt Coleman scored 19 points, including the go-ahead free throws with 1.8 seconds left, and No. 13 Texas rallied in the closing minutes to beat No. 20 Texas Tech 67-66 in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday night.
Jase Febres finished with 15 points, Andrew Jones added 11, and Jericho Sims and Kai Jones had 10 apiece for the Longhorns (18-7), who advanced to play No. 11 Kansas — the tournament’s second seed — in the semifinals Friday night.
The sixth-seeded Red Raiders led 66-61 before baskets by Kai Jones and Coleman got third-seeded Texas within a point with less than a minute to go. Texas Tech had a chance to push the lead back out, but Terrence Shannon Jr. was stripped on his drive to the basket by Brock Cunningham, giving the Longhorns a chance for the winning basket.
Andrew Jones missed the first try on a drive to the rim, and the loose ball on the rebound went to Coleman, who passed right back to Jones for a 3-pointer that bounced off the iron and out of bounds with 16.3 seconds left.
Texas coach Shaka Smart called timeout and drew up a play that put the outcome in Coleman’s hands. He drove to the basket and was fouled with 1.8 seconds left, and the senior from Norfolk, Virginia, calmly hit both free throws.
Shannon finished with 18 points to lead the Red Raiders. Kevin McCullar scored 11 and Marcus Santo-Silva had 10.
Texas Tech (17-10) raced to a 17-7 lead in the opening minutes, taking advantage of some sloppy offense by the Longhorns that included three offensive fouls in a span of about three minutes. And when Smart’s team whittled the lead down to 23-22, the Red Raiders got three straight buckets to push it right back out.
The Longhorns had the final say in the first half, though.
Beginning with a dunk by Sims, they scored the final 12 points. Coleman hit a 3-pointer and made a nifty spinning layup, Febres added a 3 and Coleman’s buzzer-beating basket gave Texas a 34-30 halftime lead.
The Red Raiders regained the lead and pushed it back to 10 early in the second half, a stretch in which Mac McClung finally got his first field goal to go, but the Longhorns answered and the game became a back-and-forth tug-of-war.
At one point, Kai Jones buried a 3-pointer for Texas, Kyler Edwards answered at the other end for Texas Tech after missing his first five 3-point tries, and Febres followed with another 3 for the Longhorns — all of it in a span of 46 seconds.
It remained that close all the way all the way to the finish.
BIG PICTURE
Texas Tech had no trouble getting to the foul line; once the Red Raiders were there was another story. They were just 12 of 20 on free throws, missing a series of them midway through the second half and allowing Texas to mount a comeback.
Texas was 11 of 26 from beyond the arc, turning almost exclusively to their backcourt with star freshman Greg Jones limited to just two points in 13 minutes because of foul trouble.
UP NEXT
Texas will play the second-seeded Jayhawks for a spot in the championship game Friday night.
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