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Just before I sat down to write this game recap, I received a two word email from Peter.
"Mercy kill."
That is all it said. Sounds about right.
Joseph Young led the way for Houston, scoring 18 points, going 4-9 from three point range. Julien Lewis led all scorers with 27 points in a losing effort.
The Longhorns were undermined by shooting troubles all night. Rick Barnes' team hit only 38 percent of their attempts from the field, and went 6-22 from long range. Houston only shot the ball a little bit better, but it was enough to claim victory.
It was a game of runs. The Cougars started off well, leading by as many as 11 points in the first half, while Texas seemingly could not buy a basket. Then the Longhorns tightened up their defense and finished the first half strong, pulling to within three before surrendering a triple at the buzzer to Young. Midway through the second half, the Longhorns took advantage of their free throws to pull ahead by six, and with around seven minutes remaining seemed to be pulling away.
But the lead vanished quickly. A cluster of Houston threes over the next two minutes shifted the story, and with four minutes remaining Texas was again down by five points. Texas battled back, getting several defensive stops, and with 52 seconds left on the clock Myck Kabongo sank two free throws to put Texas ahead 72-71.
After a Houston time out, the next possession seemed to take forever. The Cougars couldn't get a good look, and ran the shot clock down to nearly nothing -- but Daniel House sank a jumper to reclaim the lead. Julien Lewis missed a jump shot with 5 seconds remaining, and Ioannis Papapetrou couldn't secure the ball after running down the miss.
We will pick through the rubble of this season in the coming weeks, and try to understand just what happened with this team. But for now, I can say this. The season is over, and I am still not sure what the hell happened.