Dexter Pittman being interviewed by Mark Rosner

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but Texas escaped with a Big 12 road win in Lincoln on Wednesday night, defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers by the narrowest of margins, 62-61.

Coming off back-to-back road losses, the Longhorns (14-5, 4-1 Big 12) desperately needed a victory to not only stop the bleeding, but also to stay in the thick of the developing conference race. Early on, it appeared that the Cornhuskers (12-6, 1-3) were under a trance from behind the arc, going 7-of-14 there in the first half. Fortunately, Texas was also shooting very well from three-point range and headed to the locker room with a 31-28 lead after Justin Mason hit a floater at the buzzer.

The second half saw Texas develop an eight-point lead about midway through, although the Horns threw away a ton of opportunities to expand their advantage. As was the case all night long, the Texas players tried to force passes when there were no openings, particularly into the post. On the positive side of things, at least many of the turnovers were a result of trying to establish an inside game. But that’s about the only silver lining in those 17 giveaways.

The breakout star of the game was Dexter Pittman, pictured above. He came off the bench and played significant minutes in both halves, a huge change from his usual mop-up duties in the waning minutes of cupcake games. (Major props to the all-stars at Burnt Orange Nation for predicting that development in their pregame.) For the first time this year, there was something of a presence in the low post for Texas. Pittman scored seven and pulled down four boards in twelve minutes of play, by far his best outing of the season.

Kevin Durant got back to his high scoring ways, although he became nearly invisible in the second half for a second consecutive game. K-Smoove was half of the two-man show that kept Texas in the game early when Nebraska was hitting every three they took — A.J. Abrams was the other — and finished with 26 points and 15 boards, yet another double-double for the freshman phenom. Abrams scored fourteen points and was 4-of-9 from behind the arc.

D.J. Augustin didn’t make a single shot, but he did dish the rock. Augustin was credited with ten assists on the night, while only turning over the ball twice. Unfortunately, a lot of the offense is still oftentimes an Augustin drive followed by a shot or dish. There were more back-door cuts tonight, but oftentimes it just led to a freed-up guard coming around the corner, receiving the ball, then dribbling to the top of the key as another guard made the same circuit. This is still something that needs to be addressed as the season winds down, but I have no doubt that it will be taken care of by March.

Craig Winder hustled all over the floor in his six minutes of action, corralling two rebounds and playing great perimeter defense. The great thing about Winder is that his length and speed allow him to sag off and help in the paint, yet still flash out quickly enough to get a hand in a shooter’s face behind the arc. I love his hard-nosed attitude and determination. Early in the year, he was a bit out of control — and, admittedly, he still sometimes is on the offense end — but he seems to have that under control and provides a handful of quality minutes each game now without making stupid fouls.

As ugly as it was, Coach Barnes put it best when he said, “I’ll take it.” Texas was staring a three-game losing streak in the face as Nebraska raced down the court with the ball and eight seconds left. Instead, the Horns now get the luxury of coming home against a scuttling Baylor Bear team with the hopes of starting a new winning streak…. before heading to Lubbock for what is certain to be a huge test. Such is life in all major conferences this time of year.

Thursday night I’ll roll out the first portion of the photo galleries. In the meantime, revel in the gut-check win and buy some tickets to the home game on Saturday.