Tag Archives: Texas Longhorns

Johnson’s complete game keeps Texas undefeated at the Coral Gables Regional

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By Jerry Briggs
For The JB Replay

Texas Longhorns pitcher Lebarron Johnson Jr. barely could find the words to describe what it felt like to throw a complete game in the NCAA tournament. To fire a season-high 129 pitches and to beat the national No. 9-seeded Miami Hurricanes, 4-1, on their home field.

“It was surreal, honestly,” Johnson, a redshirt sophomore from Jacksonville, Fla., told ESPN. “I just knew I had to keep going for my team, for my pen, for my offense. I just tried to dig deep. I thank the Lord for allowing me to get through it.”

The Longhorns, likewise, are thanking Johnson for a sterling performance that allowed them to improve to 2-0 in the NCAA Coral Gables Regional.

With the win, they’ll play Sunday night for the regional title. In the first game Sunday, the Hurricanes will face the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns in a battle of once-beaten teams. The loser will be eliminated, while the winner will move into the title round against the Longhorns.

Texas’ opponent will need to win Sunday night and again on Monday to claim the regional title. Meaning, of course, that the Longhorns like their chances of playing next week in the Super Regional round.

In the aftermath of the victory, Johnson spoke to ESPN television broadcasters on the field, still wide-eyed about what he had done.

“It’s surreal, honestly,” he said. “I’m still trying to process this.”

In completing nine innings, he allowed seven hits, one earned run and walked three while striking out eight. In one stretch, from the fourth through the seventh innings, he retired 11 straight. Johnson, who improved to 8-3 on the season, said Texas coach David Pierce approached him after the eighth inning to ask him how he felt.

“He came to me,” Johnsons said. “He said, ‘Do you want it? I said, ‘Yes, sir. I’ll try my best.’ ”

To start the game, the Longhorns jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Dylan Campbell supplied the fireworks with a two-run homer.

Johnson, in turn, endured a rough go of it. He loaded the bases on a walk, a single and another walk. Luckily for him, the Hurricanes couldn’t get anything out of it.

“I had to get my nerves out of the way, honestly,” he said. “I was nervous coming in, with the rain delay and all that. I just knew that I had to trust my work. Trust my coaches. Trust my ability to go out there and do my job. I just had to pull through for my team.”

The Longhorns added single runs in the second and third, pushing out to a 4-0 lead. San Antonio’s Jalin Flores, a freshman from Brandeis, figured in the scoring with an RBI single in the third.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Hurricanes finally broke through. Dominic Pitelli led off with a solo home run. That, however, is all that they would get the rest of the way.

The Hurricanes threatened in the eighth and ninth, but came up empty each time.

Statistics would indicate that Johnson might have been building toward something like this for the past six weeks. In his last six starts, he threw 91, 85, 112, 83, 101 and 95 pitches. So, it wasn’t totally surprising to see coaches let him go out for the last inning.

“I’m from Florida, so I’m kind of used to this (heat) a little bit,” he said. “The tiredness kicked in a little bit. But I just knew I needed to dig deep … execute pitches and trust my team.”

Pitching, highlight-reel defense lift Texas to victory in the Coral Gables Regional

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By Jerry Briggs
For The JB Replay

Outfielders Eric Kennedy and Dylan Campbell made highlight-worthy defensive plays to back the pitching of lefthander Lucas Gordon on Friday as the Texas Longhorns downed the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns 4-2 in the opening game of the NCAA Coral Gables Regional.

In addition, Campbell had two hits and two RBIs and set the Big 12 record by hitting safely in his 36th straight game. Texas (39-20) advances in the regional to play Saturday night against the regional’s host team, the Miami Hurricanes (41-19).

Miami hit three home runs and downed the Maine Black Bears, 9-1, in the late game Friday night. The Hurricanes are the No. 9 seed nationally and the region’s No. 1. The Longhorns are seeded No. 2 in the region.

Locked in a scoreless defensive battle through five innings, the Cajuns and the Longhorns both started to score in the sixth. In the top half, a double by Heath Hood, followed by an RBI single from Connor Higgs, lifted the Cajuns into a 1-0 lead. Texas added two in the bottom half.

For the Longhorns, Mitchell Daly led off the inning with a solo homer to left. Later, San Antonio’s Porter Brown produced the go-ahead run with an RBI single to right. Texas was up 2-1 at that point and would not relinquish the lead. Kennedy added a two-run double in the seventh for a 4-1 spread.

Louisiana’s Carson Roccaforte hit a solo homer in the eighth to account for the final run.

The game may have turned on two defensive plays by the Longhorns. In the fourth inning, Kennedy, playing center, ranged back and slightly into right center while tracking a drive by John Taylor. He leaped at the fence and caught the would-be, three-run homer for the third out.

In the sixth, Campbell, the UT right fielder, raced toward the foul line, dove nearly parallel to the ground and snagged a drive by Roccaforte. If he hadn’t caught it, Roccaforte would have had at least a triple and the Cajuns might have been off and running toward a big inning. The remarkable play preceded the hits by Hood and Higgs.

Gordon worked seven innings and gave up one run on five hits. He improved his record to 6-1 on the season and lowered his earned run average to 2.55. Righthander Jackson Nezue (9-6) was hard-luck losing pitcher, charged with two runs in five plus innings.

Gainesville Regional

Zac Vooletich ripped a two-run single in the fifth inning and Brandon Beckel pitched two innings of scoreless relief Friday, helping the Texas Tech Red Raiders defeat the Connecticut Huskies 3-2 in the opening game of the NCAA Gainesville Regional.

With the victory, the Red Raiders (40-21) will advance in the winners bracket to play Saturday against the regional host Florida Gators (45-14). Florida is the No. 2 national seed and the No. 1 seed in the Gainesville Regional. Texas Tech is the region’s third seed.

Vooletich, a senior from Brandeis, played as the designated hitter for the third-seeded Red Raiders. He entered the day with a .406 batting average. In the fifth inning, he came up to bat with one out and the bases loaded against UConn reliever Zach Fogell. Vooletich responded with a single up the middle to score Kevin Bazzell and Austin Green.

Beckel, a 6-foot-4 junior from Antonian, entered the game in the bottom of the seventh as a reliever for starter Mason Molina. He inherited trouble, with runners at first and second. After a wild pitch allowed the runners to move up, they both scored, one on a ground ball and another on a single.

Both runs were charged to Molina. Beckel settled down to finish two innings and keep the Red Raiders in the lead. He allowed two hits and struck out one. Molina (6-2) earned the victory and Josh Sanders, who pitched the ninth, got the save.

Stillwater Regional

Walloped by the Washington Huskies on Friday, the Dallas Baptist Patriots will play an elimination game Saturday at 2 p.m. against the regional host Oklahoma State Cowboys.

The Cowboys also lost on Friday, falling 6-4 in a stunner to the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.

Oklahoma State entered the NCAA tournament as the No. 11 national seed and the No. 1 seed in the four-team region. Dallas Baptist, the regular-season champion in Conference USA, entered the weekend as the region’s No. 2 seed, followed in order by Washington and Oral Roberts.

In Friday’s first game, the Huskies surprised the Patriots, 9-5, as they jumped all over Dallas Baptist ace righthander Ryan Johnson. Michael Snyder and Johnny Tincher hit homers in a seven-run fifth inning as Washington took an 8-1 lead.

The Patriots battled back by scoring three runs in their half of the fifth and one more in the seventh. Undaunted, Snyder answered, adding an RBI double in the eighth inning for the final run.

Winning in basketball on a disconcerting day: Texas beats Rice 87-81 in overtime

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Capping a long and disconcerting day for the Texas Longhorns, the players stayed together, maintained level heads through an uneven start and then finished with a flourish to down the Rice Owls, 87-81, in overtime.

Guard Marcus Carr led seventh-ranked UT with 28 points, including eight in overtime, at UT’s sparkling new Moody Center arena. Sir’Jabari Rice also hit some key buckets in the extra period.

All night, though, it was coach Rodney Terry who stepped in under difficult circustances to steady the Longhorns against Quincy Olivari, Travis Evee and the hot-shooting Owls.

Arguably one of the worst days in UT’s basketball history started early Monday morning with the shocking arrest of Texas head coach Chris Beard, who was charged with felony family violence.

The arrest stemmed from an overnight altercation in which a woman told police that Beard strangled and bit her, according to the Associated Press, the Austin American-Statesman and other Austin media outlets which cited information in an affidavit.

In the wake of Beard’s afternoon release from jail on bond, the university announced that the coach had been suspended without pay “until further notice.”

With Beard’s status uncertain and Terry working as head coach on the bench, UT players, perhaps understandably, seemed a bit out of sorts initially.

The Owls played loose and free and jumped out to an early nine-point lead, and then after the Horns closed to within one, pushed it back to 10 points with two minutes left in the half.

Leading by four at intermission, Rice continued to hit perimeter shots and traded momentum with UT in a closely-contested match.

At the end of regulation, the Owls had a chance to win but missed a shot from the side in the final seconds, sending it to overtime.

“We showed a lot of grit,” Terry said on the UT’s postgame radio broadcast. “(We) battled through some adversity throughout the course of the day, in the game, earlier today, as well. I give my guys a lot of credit. I give our staff a lot of credit.”

With Carr and Sir’Jabari Rice leading the way, the Longhorns outscored the Owls 15-9 in the extra period.

Olivari led the Owls with 28 points, his third consecutive game with 20 or more, and Travis Evee added 19.

For the Longhorns, Timmy Allen scored 15, while freshman Dillon Mitchell produced 12 points and nine rebounds. Off the bench, Rice scored 11, and Brock Cunningham added six points and 10 boards.

“We’ve got an experienced staff that did a great job,” Terry said. “Again, our guys were right where they needed to be at winning time. We’ve been in that position. We’re going to be in that position all year. You know, we found a way to get it done.”

It’s not immediately clear how long Beard will be out.

The coach didn’t answer questions when he left the jail with his attorney, Perry Minton, according to the AP.

Minton declined comment but earlier told the American-Statesman that the coach is innocent.

“He should never have been arrested,” Minton told the newspaper. “The complainant wants him released immediately and all charges dismissed. It is truly inconceivable.”

UT said in a statement that it “takes matters of interpersonal violence involving members of its community seriously.”

According to the AP, the university did not commit to Terry as the acting coach for the Longhorns beyond Monday night.

Terry previously worked at UT as an assistant coach under Rick Barnes before moving on to become a head coach at Fresno State (2011-18) and UTEP (2018-21). He is in his second season as a UT associate head coach under Beard.

Editor’s note: This story was written from San Antonio with help from the UT radio broadcast and with supplemental statistical information from the school’s website.

Houston ascends to No. 1 in AP basketball poll for the first time in 39 years

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In 1983, Phi Slama Jama became all the rage in college basketball. Hakeem (formerly Akeem) Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Larry Micheaux made the sport a happening on campus at the University of Houston.

The Cougars reached No. 1 in the Associated Press poll en route to an NCAA tournament run that would take them to the national finals.

Thirty-nine years later, the Coogs have done it again. A team coached by veteran Kelvin Sampson and led on the floor by the likes of Marcus Sasser, Tramon Mark and freshman sensation Jarace Walker ascended on Monday to the top spot in the venerable poll.

“I’ve never been ranked No. 1,” Sampson, now in his 34th season as a coach, told the AP. “We were ranked all 12 years at Oklahoma. I’m sure we were ranked at Indiana. Then we’ve been ranked five or six straight years. We’re used to having a high level of success.”

The state of Texas is represented well in the latest edition of the weekly poll. Chris Beard’s Texas Longhorns are No. 2. Scott Drew’s Baylor Bears are No. 6.

North Carolina, ranked No. 1 all season up until today, lost last week to Iowa State and in a four-overtime game to Alabama at the Phil Knight Invitational. In the wake of those developments, Houston moved up after beating Kent State in its only game last week.

Sampson’s Cougars were denied a trip to the Final Four last spring when they lost an Elite Eight matchup to Villanova in San Antonio at the AT&T Center.

This year, they are 6-0 with victories over Northern Colorado, St. Joseph’s, Oral Roberts, Texas Southern, Oregon and Kent State. The Coogs haven’t given up more than 56 points in any of their victories.

Houston plays next on Tuesday at home when it hosts Norfolk State. The Cougars will face tough tests against Alabama and Virginia before opening American Conference play in late December against Tulsa.

AP Top 25 poll
Men’s college basketball
November 28, 2022

1. Houston 6-0
2. Texas 5-0
3. Virginia 5-0
4. Arizona 6-0
5. Purdue 6-0
6. Baylor 5-1
7. Creighton 6-1
8. Connecticut 8-0
9. Kansas 6-1
10. Indiana 6-0
11. Arkansas 5-1
11. Alabama 6-1
13. Tennessee 5-1
14. Gonzaga 5-2
15. Auburn 7-0
16. Illinois 5-1
17. Duke 6-2
18. North Carolina 5-2
19. Kentucky 4-2
20. Michigan State 5-2
21. UCLA 5-2
22. Maryland 6-0
23. Iowa State 5-1
24. San Diego State 4-2
25. Ohio State 5-1

Purdue holds on to oust Texas from the NCAA tournament

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Forward Trevion Williams sank 10 of 13 shots and scored 22 points Sunday night, and the third-seeded Purdue Boilermakers produced a 81-71 NCAA tournament victory over the Texas Longhorns at Milwaukee.

With the win, the Boilermakers (29-7) will move on to the Sweet 16 in the East region. Purdue will play 15th-seeded Saint Peter’s, of Jersey City, N.J., on Friday in Philadelphia.

The Longhorns were sparked all night by guard Marcus Carr until the Boilermakers started shading him with a second defender midway through the second half.

Hitting from the mid-range and from three, Carr produced 23 points and six assists to lead the Longhorns.

At the end, Carr became a distributor. He assisted on a couple of baskets in the final few minutes and then hit a three out of the corner with 1:30 remaining. His three sliced Purdue’s lead to three.

On the next possession, guard Jaden Ivey knocked down a long three from the top to push the Boilermakers up by six, 77-71, with a minute remaining.

Texas would get no closer the rest of the way.

The Horns (22-12) entered the tournament on a three-game losing streak. They had lost six of 11, including a loss to TCU in the Big 12 tournament.

Earning the sixth seed in the East, they were sent to Milwaukee, where they downed the Virginia Tech Hokies 81-73 in the first round. Against the Boilermakers, the Longhorns were looking for their first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2008.

“I’m just super proud of our guys,” Texas coach Chris Beard said. “It’s not all the normal coaching cliches, I really mean it. This group overcame a lot. Most of these guys recruited by Texas and us during the COVID. They didn’t take official visits.

“Four guys chose to stay. Other guys made the decision on Zoom calls and phone calls. They all came together and I thought (we) really had a good season. We came down here to win this tournament and came up a little bit short tonight, but never been more proud of a group.”

Seven teams from Texas make the NCAA tournament

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A few nights ago, it appeared that the state of Texas might have a chance to get as many as 10 teams in the NCAA tournament. By the time the field of 68 was unveiled on Sunday night, the state had seven representatives in the Big Dance.

Here’s a quick glance:

Baylor — The Scott Drew-coached Bears (26-6) enter March Madness as the top seed in the East Regional, trying to win back-to-back national championships. Baylor will play Virginia-based Norfolk State (24-6) on Thursday at Dickie’s Arena in Fort Worth. Baylor, playing without injured big man Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua, who is out for the season, finished 14-4 and shared the Big 12 regular-season title with Kansas. The Bears lost to Oklahoma in the Big 12 quarterfinals.

Texas Tech — The Red Raiders (25-9) will play as the No. 3 seed in the West. Tech will take on Montana State (27-7) on Friday in San Diego at Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl. Tech will face its initial NCAA test under first-year coach Mark Adams, an assistant under the Red Raiders’ previous coach, Chris Beard. The Red Raiders finished 12-6 and finished third in the Big 12 regular season. They lost to Kansas in the tournament title game.

Houston — The Cougars (29-5) will compete as the No. 5 seed in the South and will meet the UAB Blazers (27-7) on Friday inside PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. Houston’s coach is Kelvin Sampson, a veteran who has worked previously at Washington State, Oklahoma and Indiana. Sampson led the Cougars to the Final Four last year. Houston lost stars Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mark to injury earlier in December but rebounded to win the AAC regular season (at 15-3) and tournament crowns.

Texas — The Longhorns (21-11) will move into NCAA play under first-year coach Chris Beard as the sixth seed in the East. They’ll play in Milwaukee on Friday against the No 11 seed Virginia Tech Hokies (23-12). Texas finished fourth in the Big 12 regular season at 10-8 and lost to TCU 65-60 in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Virginia Tech won the ACC tournament title as the seventh seed, routing Duke 82-67 in the championship game.

TCU — The Jamie Dixon-coached Horned Frogs (20-12) will take on the Seton Hall Pirates (21-10) on Friday in San Diego. The Pirates are the eighth seed and the Horned Frogs are ninth in the South Region. TCU beat Texas Tech and Kansas late in the regular season and the knocked off Texas in the Big 12 tournament. Seton Hall won seven straight before falling to Connecticut in the Big East quarterfinals.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi — The Steve Lutz-coached Islanders (23-12) will take on the Texas Southern Tigers (18-12) on Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio. Both teams are seeded 16th in the Midwest Region, with the winner getting a chance to take on the No. 1 seeded Kansas Jayhawks. Lutz, a San Antonio native, is in his first season as a Division I head coach. The Islanders swept three games to win the Southland Tournament, including back-to-back victories over No. 1 seed Nicholls State and No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana.

Texas Southern — The Johnny Jones-coached Tigers (18-12) scheduled their first 11 games of the season on the road. They lost the first seven before steadying the ship to finish in second place at 13-5 in the SWAC regular season. In the SWAC tournament, the Tigers beat Jackson State, Grambling and then toppled No. 1 seed Alcorn State for the conference title and their second straight trip to the NCAAs. The Tigers rely on defense and a big and talented front court to control the game.

Texas State baseball holds on to beat top-ranked Texas, 6-4

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John Wuthrich hit a three-run homer to ignite a five-run third inning Wednesday night, leading the Texas State Bobcats past the No. 1-ranked Texas Longhorns, 6-4.

Isaiah Ortega-Jones added a solo homer in the fourth for the Bobcats, from the Sun Belt Conference, who have won six of eight meetings this season against power conference programs.

Texas State has swept three games from Ohio State of the Big Ten, won two of three at No. 11 Arizona of the Pac-12 and now have split two against the top-ranked Longhorns from the Big 12.

On Tuesday night, Texas rallied from a three-run deficit to beat Texas State 9-8 in San Marcos. A night later, UT threatened to pull off another comeback in Austin, only to be stifled in the late innings by Bobcats relief pitchers.

The game got intense after the eighth, particularly, when three Texas batters struck out against Levi Wells.

After the third out, UT coach David Pierce was ejected by the home plate umpire. With Pierce coming onto the field arguing his case, fans howled. But pretty soon, Pierce went back to the dugout, gathered his things and left.

In the bottom of the ninth, Tristan Stivors, formerly of Medina Valley High School, entered to pitch for the Bobcats.

Mitchell Daly singled and Eric Kennedy reached on a one-out hit by pitch. With runners at first and second, slugger Ivan Melendez came at the plate.

Stivors didn’t flinch. He threw a breaking ball to strike out Melendez looking to end the game. Both Wells and Stivors each struck out three in an inning’s work to complete the victory.

Records

Texas State 11-3
Texas 12-2

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Zubia, Williams power No. 8 Texas past third-ranked TCU, 9-3

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TCU fans showed up at Lupton Stadium Sunday hoping to see their team deliver a knockout blow to the Texas Longhorns in the Big 12 regular-season title race.

They left unfulfilled as the Longhorns romped to a 9-3 victory to win the series, two games to one. Jumping out to a 9-0 lead, Texas pulled to within one game of first-place TCU.

Zach Zubia smashed two home runs and Cam Williams added another in a 12-hit attack as Texas silenced the TCU faithful and kept Texas’ championship hopes alive, with one series remaining for each squad before the Big 12 tournament.

Regardless of what happens in the race, Texas left-handed pitcher Pete Hansen sent a message that he is primed for the postseason.

Hansen (6-1) pitched seven shutout innings, allowing only two hits while striking out four in a game that carried NCAA playoff implications.

Backed into a corner after losing 2-1 to TCU on Saturday, Texas played as well in a big-game road atmosphere as is has all season, likely bolstering its hopes for a top-eight national tournament seed.

Records

Texas 15-6, 38-12
TCU 16-5, 34-12

Coming up

Texas plays a couple of non-conference games before closing out Big 12 play May 20-22 with three at home against West Virginia (17-23, 7-14).

TCU will be much busier in coming days. The Frogs play five non-conference home games between now and March 18. They also finish conference May 20-22 but they will be on the road at Kansas State (28-18, 7-11).

Former Flying Chanclas spark TCU’s 2-1 victory over Texas

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Two former Flying Chanclas de San Antonio were flying high in Fort Worth on Saturday afternoon.

With Porter Brown producing a two-RBI single and left-hander Austin Krob surviving some shaky moments to emerge as the winning pitcher, the third-ranked TCU Horned Frogs protected their lead in the Big 12 baseball race with a 2-1 victory over the Texas Longhorns.

Both Brown and Krob played in San Antonio last summer with the Flying Chanclas, a first-time entry in the wood-bat Texas Collegiate League.

Playing on a bigger stage Saturday, both helped lift the Frogs one step closer to a conference regular-season championship.

In the second inning, Brown hit a two-out single up the middle off Texas starter Tristan Stevens to score Tommy Sacco and Elijah Nunez.

Brown is a redshirt freshman from Reagan High School. He finished 2 for 4 at the plate to increase his batting average to .359. He also hiked his RBI total to 17 in 25 games played.

Krob, a sophomore from Lisbon, Iowa, ran his win-loss record to 7-0. He worked 5 and 2/3 innings and allowed one run on six hits. Krob walked four and struck out three.

Marcelo Perez and Haylen Green each pitched 1 and 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to nail down the victory.

If the Longhorns come up short in the title race, they may look back on three base-running issues in Saturday’s game, one in each of the first three innings.

In the first, Zach Zubia was thrown out by a wide margin as he tried to go first-to-third on a single to right field. In the second inning, Cam Williams was on third base and strayed too far off the bag on a chopper back to the mound. He was caught in a run-down and tagged out.

In the third, Texas had a rally going and scored its only run of the game on a play that started with Texas runners on first and second and a fly ball to center. It ended on an error, an errant throw that came in from Nunez in center and allowed Mike Antico to race all the way around from second to score.

But on the next play, the Longhorns helped kill the rally when Mitchell Daly was caught in a run-down between second and third base.

Records

TCU 34-11, 16-4
Texas 37-12, 14-6

Notable

Marcelo Perez, from Laredo, was also a member of the Flying Chanclas last summer. On Saturday, he allowed one hit and no runs in 1 and 2/3 innings. A big moment came in the sixth when he struck out Texas’ Trey Faltine to end the inning with two runners on base. Both Krob and Perez worked under Flying Chanclas pitching coach Calvin Schiraldi, a former star at Texas in the early 1980s.

Brown sat out most of last summer’s games with an injury. Nevertheless, he had drawn the praise of manager John McLaren after getting off to a hot start as a hitter. Brown has spent some time on the bench with the talented Horned Frogs this season, including Friday’s series opener against Texas.

Out of TCU’s 44 games, he has played in 25, with 16 starts. But when he has played, he has produced, driving in 17 runs and hitting for a .359 batting average.

Texas Tech routs Texas, 70-51, to stoke Big 12 title hopes

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The eighth-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders will win at least a share of their first Big 12 basketball title if they can beat Iowa State on the road Saturday.

Can they do it?

“That’s the plan,” Texas Tech guard Jarrett Culver told ESPN’s Holly Rowe after Monday night’s 70-51 home victory over the Texas Longhorns.

The Red Raiders won their eighth straight game with dominant defense, holding the Longhorns to 29.6 percent shooting.

Sharp-shooting guard Jase Febres couldn’t get many open looks and finished 1-for-10 from the field, underscoring Texas’ struggles against one of the best defensive teams in the nation.

On the other end, the Red Raiders patiently picked apart the Longhorns with 50 percent field goal accuracy.

Six different players hit at least one three-pointer for Tech, led by Davide Moretti’s 3 for 3.

Culver scored 16, Matt Mooney 15 and Moretti 11 for the Red Raiders, who are tied for first with the Kansas State Wildcats leading into the final weekend.

Kansas State beat TCU 64-52 in Fort Worth to keep pace in the race. Kansas State plays at home Saturday in its finale against Oklahoma.

Big 12 standings

Texas Tech 13-4, 25-5
Kansas State 13-4, 23-7
Kansas 11-5, 22-7
Baylor 10-6, 19-10
Iowa State 9-7, 20-9
Texas 8-9, 16-14
TCU 6-10, 18-11
Oklahoma 6-10, 18-11
West Virginia 3-13, 11-18
Oklahoma State 3-13, 10-19