As the minutes ticked down in last night’s semifinal in the 2KSports Classic, the storyline felt all too familiar for Texas fans. The Longhorns went over seven minutes without a field goal, letting their nine-point lead completely evaporate. For many burnt-orange faithful, another narrow, last-minute defeat seemed imminent. But this time, the Longhorns flipped the script.

Cory Joseph hit a jumper with 24 seconds to play to put Texas up by two, but Illinois quickly responded with a game-tying drive from freshman Jereme Richmond. The Longhorns regrouped heading into overtime and burst out of the gates in the extra five minutes. Texas surged ahead by scoring the first eight points of overtime and withstood a late barrage of threes from Bill Cole to hang on to a 90-84 win.

What looked good

The first half was an offensive showcase for both teams. Illinois and Texas combined to shoot 53% from the field while lighting up the scoreboard with 90 points. Despite the up-and-down tempo, Texas controlled the basketball. In the first half, the Longhorns coughed it up just four times, and finished with just 10 turnovers in 45 minutes of basketball.

More importantly, Texas dominated the fast break scoring in a game with very few offensive miscues. While Illinois only had 12 turnovers of their own, Texas scored 17 points off of then. The Illini, meanwhile, managed just seven points off of the Texas miscues.

The breakout star of the game was freshman Tristan Thompson. In each of his first two games, the Canadian product played 25 minutes. Against the Illini, he led all Longhorns with 40 minutes on the court. He contributed in every way possible, and didn’t show any signs of fatigue down the stretch. He was lights out from the floor, shooting 8-of-11 on the night. He showed off a beautiful turnaround jumpshot for the national TV audience, and emerged as a shot-blocking machine. Thompson had five swats in the game, many coming as he provided help D on a teammate’s blown assignment.

A huge concern for this Longhorn team is the lack of frontcourt depth, but Alexis Wangmene played well in his brief relief of Thompson. Typically, the bench forward position has been split between Wangmene and Matt Hill, but with Thompson playing 15 more minutes than usual, Matt’s role was rather limited.

Wangmene finished the night with six points, essentially doubling his career average. He knocked down both his free throws — quite a noteworthy accomplishment for any Longhorn — and added a putback and a silky J from the elbow. Wangmene still had some defensive lapses, including one play where he closed out on an already-guarded three-point attempt, leaving his man all alone for an easy rebound and putback. But if Thompson is playing as well as he did last night and can stay out of foul trouble, this kind of simple, quality performance is all Texas will need from the Wangmene/Hill combo.

What needed work

As always, the most glaring deficiency for the Longhorn team could be found at the charity stripe. Texas finished with a 56.8% free-throw percentage in the game, but that number dipped as low as 45% midway through the second half. The one glimmer of hope in the midst of the perpetual free-throw nightmare was how Texas performed at the line in crunch time. As they struggled through that seven-minute field-goal drought, the Horns knocked down 8-of-10 free throws to stay in the game.

A huge cause of those lengthy field-goal blues was the terrible trend of the Texas offensive possessions turning into simply isolate-dribble-shoot. Jordan Hamilton was a repeat offender, often driving the lane before forcing up bad shots against two and three defenders. The Texas guards were also guilty of this on numerous ocassions, so the team will have to work on kicking it out for midrange Js, three-pointers, or simply to reset the offense.

Another cause of the second-half futility came from the lack of Texas depth. With Coach Rick Barnes trying to steal some rest for his starting five — who combined to play more than 78% of the team’s total minutes — the lineup combinations in the second half made it tough to score.

There was actually a brief stretch where Dogus Balbay, Jai Lucas, and Wangmene were all on the court at the same time. With Lucas’ short stature and Balbay’s allergy to any shot besides a layup, that group was essentially buying rest for the starters while trying their hardest to maintain the Longhorn lead.

Without a doubt, the lack of depth is going to lead to a few losses this season. Whether it’s a result of foul trouble or just a tired starting five, the Texas bench will have to play extended minutes at some point this year, and there’s simply not enough offensive skill waiting on the pine for that to work.

Defensively, both teams had issues last night. Illinois was working hard all night freeing up Demetri McCamey and D.J. Richardson, running the Texas guards through screen after screen off of the ball. Unfortunately, the Horns had problems with switching on those screens, and they gave up a lot of open looks as the Illini guards zipped past Texas bigs on the perimeter. Fortunately, Texas made adjustments down the stretch and guys stuck with their man.

Looking ahead

With the win, the Longhorns now advance to the championship game of the 2KSports Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer. For the second time in as many years, the Horns will tangle with the Pitt Panthers in their November tournament championship.

Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 local time here on the east coast, but that is of course subject to the length of the preceding consolation game between Maryland and Illinois. A pregame look at the Panthers is headed your way in the next few hours.