While it's hardly taking away the stress, the Texas Longhorns are making second-half comebacks a theme this season.
In a Big 12 Conference that continues to provide thrills, the No. 10 Longhorns (19-4, 8-2) overcame a 14-point deficit, the adversity of a hostile environment and early mistakes to pull out a 69-66 win over the No. 7 Kansas State Wildcats (18-5, 6-4) in Manhattan on Saturday to take sole possession of first place in the conference.
The Longhorns trailed K-State 66-65 with under a minute to play, but forward Christian Bishop, who had all 14 of his points in the second half, spun baseline for the go-ahead layup with 39 seconds left to help secure the win.
After only scoring 25 points in the first half, the Horns posted 44 points in the final 20 minutes.
Texas was led by the bench production of Bishop and Sir'Jabari Rice (14 points, 10 rebounds) while Tyrese Hunter and Marcus Carr both had 10 points apiece.
K-State was led once again by a duo that has taken the Big 12 by storm this season, as Keyontae Johnson (16 points) and Markquis Nowell (10 points) did their thing, but they were unable to find the magic that the Cats had in the first meeting with Texas on Jan. 3, a K-State win that saw the team post an all-time program high 116 points.
As they have many times this season, the Longhorns got off to a slow start in the first half on Saturday.
Already facing a deficit that felt steep to overcome due to some hot 3-point shooting from K-State, the Longhorns then allowed the Wildcats to go on an 8-0 run to take a 28-14 lead.
Looking for any answers, the Longhorns made things harder on themselves with easy misses at the rim and careless turnovers while the Wildcats took advantage.
But after cutting the halftime lead to a manageable, 11-point deficit at 36-25, Texas finally found its groove.
Led by some efficient jump-shooting coming out of the locker room, the Longhorns put together a 17-4 run in the first five-ish minutes of the second half to make it anyone's game.
And after a 3-point play from Bishop, the Longhorns took a 46-45 lead after trailing by as many as 14.
Bishop and Rice then started to take over for Texas, combining to score Texas' next 12 points. Rice hit a pair of triples as the Horns built a 58-52 lead while Bishop's unrelenting energy in the inside flipped the momentum.
The inevitable run from K-State came, as the Wildcats took a 66-65 lead with a little over a minute to play after Nowell got free for a floater in the paint.
But Bishop and Rice had a fitting end to their impressive second half, combining for the final four points to secure the win.
The Longhorns will now look to pass another test, as they'll make the in-state trip to Lawrence to take on the No. 8 Kansas Jayhawks on Monday.
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