Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Andrew Jones' 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds left sparked fourth-ranked Texas to a 72-70 come-from-behind victory over No. 14 West Virginia here at the WVU Coliseum Saturday afternoon.
 
The Mountaineers (9-4, 2-3) had an opportunity to knock off the Longhorns, leading by five with 1:28 remaining, but they couldn't cash in at the free throw line at the end.
 
After two Matt Coleman III free throws reduced West Virginia's lead to 70-67, Derek Culver was fouled by Jericho Sims with 1:05 to go. Culver missed the front end of a one-and-one leading to Courtney Ramey's driving layup.
 
Emmitt Matthews Jr. grabbed a couple of missed shots, his second offensive rebound coming with 10 seconds left. Instead of bringing the ball back out to run more clock, he chose to try and score and was fouled by Greg Brown. However, Matthews missed both free throws, which would have put WVU ahead by three, leading to Jones' game-winning triple from the corner. 
 
It was the Longhorn's only 3-pointer of the second half.
 
"We had the game in hand, we just needed to make some free throws," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "That's a tough one to swallow."
 
West Virginia appeared to be in control of the game, leading by nine with 13 minutes to go when Taz Sherman was unable to get a contested backdoor dunk attempt to go down. That turned into a four-point swing when Kai Jones was fouled at the other end and made both free throws.
 
Texas (10-1, 4-0) tied the game at 57 and kept it to within two possessions until the end. 
 
West Virginia led for all but seven minutes of today's game, including a 40-36 margin at the break.
 
Ramey was Texas' top point-man with 19, connecting on 7 of his 11 shot attempts. Jones added 16, Coleman 13, Brown 12 and Kai Jones 10.
 
Texas shot 46.6% overall, but was only 4-of-19 from 3 for 21.1%. 
 
West Virginia got 17 points off the bench from Sherman and 14 points and 16 rebounds from Culver, who in addition to going 2-of-6 from the line, was also only 6-of-16 from the floor.
 
It was Culver's 23rd career double-double.
 
Sean McNeil contributed 14 and Miles McBride added 12 for the Mountaineers.
 
"We had to play small because (backup forward) Seny (Ndiaye) is not ready, and I think that hurt us a little bit on the glass," Huggins explained.
 
The veteran coach tried to steal some additional rest time for Culver in the first half by inserting Ndiaye into the game ahead of media timeouts, but Culver ended up logging 35 minutes of court time anyway.
 
McBride also played big minutes with 37, which could have been a factor at the end of the game. 
 
Consequently, West Virginia made just 10 of its 34 field goal attempts in the second half for 29.4%, and its three second-half misses from the free throw line all occurred with less than a minute to go.
 
Overall, the Mountaineers made 13 of 19 from the line.
 
"We had good looks," Huggins said. "We ran a backdoor cut to begin the second half and had a layup and I'm not sure what everybody else was looking at."
 
The game's biggest disparity came in the paint where Texas outscored West Virginia 40-22.
 
"We couldn't stop penetration," Huggins said. 
 
The win was Texas' fifth in its last six games against West Virginia, and boosts is advantage to 13-9 over the Mountaineers in all-time series play.
 
West Virginia must turn around and travel out to Waco, Texas, to face No. 2-ranked Baylor on Tuesday night. The Bears are playing at TCU today.