Texas holds ‘em down with buzzer-beater
ATLANTA – When Texas needed a 3-point shot, it turned to the right shooter.
Kenton Paulino, a senior who ranks second in school history in career 3-point percentage, hit a 3-pointer as time expired Thursday night and Texas outlasted West Virginia 74-71 in the third round of the NCAA tournament.
Paulino’s shot saved Texas from an overtime period after Kevin Pittsnogle’s fifth 3-pointer for West Virginia tied it with 5 seconds left.
Paulino took a pass from A.J. Abrams before launching his winner just before time expired. Officials quickly huddled to confirm Paulino’s shot was good.
“The whole thing was to get it down the floor and see what happens,” Paulino said, adding he had specific instructions from coach Rick Barnes.
“Coach said if they fake the screen, which they did, get out quick and just run it down the floor and start up. So that’s what I did, I just ran down the floor. A.J. got the ball to me and I was ready to go.”
The senior said he had never made a similar shot, though he has made 40.9 percent of his career 3-pointers. He led the team by making 41.6 percent of his 3-pointers this season, but in Thursday night’s game, Texas was not the team depending on 3-pointers.
West Virginia, second in the nation in 3-pointers made this season, made 15 of 33 3-point shots in the game. Texas was 4 for 19 from 3-point range.
“We thought we had a pretty good shot to go into overtime,” Pittsnogle said. “(Paulino) just tossed it up and it went in.”
LaMarcus Aldridge scored 26 points for second-seeded Texas (30-6), and Pittsnogle led the sixth-seeded Mountaineers (22-11) with 19.
Texas beat West Virginia 76-75 on Nov. 21 and couldn’t avoid another close finish, even after leading 39-27 at halftime.
“I was worried coming in because it was a team we know,” Barnes said. “I am not sure what happened on that last play because we were switching everything. It was a great day. Wow!”
Barnes said he didn’t call a timeout after Pittsnogle’s 3 because he already had given his team a plan.
“We told them … if they score, we’ve got to get it back and run it at them,” Barnes said. “We got as good a look as we could probably get.”
Aldridge called Paulino’s shot “amazing.”
“That shot was awesome,” Aldridge said.