Freshman Courtney Ramey tied his career-high with 19 points to propel suddenly surging Texas to a dominating 75-53 victory over hapless West Virginia on Saturday in Big 12 Conference play at in Morgantown, West Virginia.
The Longhorns slogged their way through a foul-filled first half and led by six points, but they ran away from West Virginia with a 12-3 run over the first 3:12 of the second half.
Texas kept up the heat and the offense, pushing its advantage to 70-41 on a Jericho Sims dunk with 5:13 remaining and then coasting to the victory.
The win was the second straight for the Longhorns (14-10, 6-5 Big 12) and third in their past four games. It also gave Texas a two-game sweep of the Mountaineers in the regular season for the first time since 2015-16.
West Virginia (10-14, 2-9) lost its second straight, both blowout defeats, and has lost five of its past six games since beating then-No. 7 Kansas on Jan. 19. Each of the last three losses has been by at least 22 points.
Kerwin Roach II added 14 points for the Longhorns. Texas outshot the Mountaineers 45.3 percent to 35.3 percent and had eight dunks in the second half as it attacked the wilting West Virginia defense.
Dylan Osetkowski took 10 rebounds to lead the Longhorns.
Esa Ahmad led the Mountaineers with 14 points, and none of his teammates scored more than seven points. Derek Culver grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
Texas led 27-18 on a 3-pointer by Ramey with 5:04 to play in the first half before settling for a 34-28 advantage at intermission.
Ramey had 11 points in the half to lead the Longhorns, including 3 of 4 from beyond the arc as Texas canned 6 of its 12 3-point attempts in the half.
Ahmad led the Mountaineers with nine points over the first 20 minutes as West Virginia stayed close despite shooting just 32 percent in the half.
Texas returns home to play league-leading Kansas State on Tuesday. The Mountaineers have seven days off before traveling to face Kansas on Feb. 16.
--Field Level Media
Texas | West Virginia | |
Courtney Ramey 19 | Scoring | Esa Ahmad 14 |
Matt Coleman III 5 | Assists | Derek Culver 4 |
Dylan Osetkowski 10 | Rebounds | Derek Culver 11 |
Dylan Osetkowski 4 | Free Throws Made | Derek Culver 3 |
Kerwin Roach II 3 | Steals | Andrew Gordon 1 |
Jaxson Hayes 1 | Blocks | Esa Ahmad 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Texas | 75 | 45.3 | 9-23 | 8-13 | 16 | 36 | 2 | 7 | 8 |
West Virginia | 53 | 35.3 | 3-16 | 14-20 | 10 | 31 | 6 | 4 | 11 |