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This time, No. 4 UT had to watch a road team celebrate a game-winning shot

An empty Erwin Center hosted one of the best college hoops games of the year. Unfortunately for the No. 4 Longhorns (10-2, 4-1) they were on the wrong end of a poor closing sequence and watched No. 15 Texas Tech (10-3, 3-2) do what they did in Morgantown – nail a game-winning jumper to steal a road win in the final seconds. Life in the Big 12 can be brutal.

Here are 10 postgame thoughts after No. 15 Texas Tech beat No. 4 Texas 79-77.

1) Despite Jericho Sims’s two free throws going down and out, Texas held a 77-75 lead with around 45 seconds remaining thanks to Greg Brown’s excellent defense to draw another charge, his second of the sound half. Texas Tech immediately used full-court pressure and Courtney Ramey, with two timeouts remaining, inexplicably threw the ball right to Texas Tech’s Kyler Edwards.

“I looked away. I thought that was on the inside of him. When I passed it, he wasn't. So, I just made a bad judgment call. I got to know being of the leaders that we have timeouts and I can call timeout just to reset the count,” Ramey said about the late turnover.

Much to the surprise but delight of Edwards, he gathered the ball and tossed it to Terrence Shannon for a layup to tie the game.

With 34 seconds on the game clock and 24 seconds on the shot clock, Texas, after a timeout, was given a clean look at a mid-range, baseline jumper, but Matt Coleman’s shot missed the mark. As it did all second half extremely well, Texas pushed the ball quickly up the floor off the break and Mac McClung buried a deep two in Ramey’s grill. The Texas guard sank to the floor with his head in his hands as Texas called timeout.

Coleman was able to get the ball up the floor, after Texas put the ball in play with 3.0 seconds left and attempted an off-balanced 30-footer that was off the mark.

2) As the game ended, both teams shared long stares and some words were exchanged; it was perhaps the most competitive, intense, and high-level game I’ve covered in person in a long while because both teams went to war and weren’t afraid to bang bodies and talk to the other team passionately and colorfully about what was going on. It felt and looked like an Elite Eight game.

And it seems at least slightly crazy to describe tonight’s game that way considering there wasn’t a single fan – well, Chris Del Conte was loudly voicing his encouragement for players about 30 rows up – in the arena. Speaking of that, an empty arena meant you could hear the Texas Tech boisterous celebration and booming music from the locker room very clearly before Texas frustratingly walked off the floor.“

Man, it hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts,” interrupted Coleman while being asked how much this loss stings. “We won six-straight. We’ve just been playing well, been connected. It's been fun. Winning is fun. It leaves a poor taste in everyone's mouth because we haven't lost much this year. So, the feeling is something we don't want to have, but we’ll remember it.”

Courtney Ramey, arguably the fieriest, most demonstrative competitor on the team, was visibly upset afterwards, which included throwing a chair from the Texas bench. Knowing how much this one hurt his teammate, Coleman hung around with Ramey during his postgame session while the junior guard from St. Louis answered everything directly like a pro.

“I'd do the same for him. It just shows that we're connected,” responded Ramey when asked what it meant for Coleman to stick around by his side during postgame. “And we're close. I mean, we want to talk about the game. Of course, we talk about every game. He was the reason I came to Texas. I talked to him. He allowed me to be his backcourt mate. He could have been like, ‘Nah, I want to run the show by myself.’ He allowed me to play alongside him. So, I appreciate him for that.”

Ramey put the loss on himself, but it wasn’t on him. Texas Tech did a little bit more, and made a couple less mistakes while Texas definitely left some points and stops on the floor in the second half.“I just made a couple of bad plays. I wasn't really myself down the stretch. I’m going to learn from it and that's what good players do. I'm not going to dwell on it. It hurts right now because I want to win every game. But I'm going to get past it and be there for my team. They're going to be there for me. I'm just going to prepare for Kansas State. I think we played them Saturday.

3) This loss felt a lot like the Villanova one Ramey mentioned in the postgame. The Longhorns gifted Texas Tech a couple crucial mistakes and Texas Tech capitalized while making one less mistake during the final minutes. In addition to the turnover on the inbounds pass, Texas, leading 74-71, missed a long jumper and allowed Texas Tech’s Kevin McCullar to drive right down the court for a transition layup because no one in a burnt orange and white uniform tried to stop the ball...

READ THE REST OF OUR POSTGAME COLUMN AND DISCUSS TEXAS BASKETBALL INSIDE THE 40 ACRES (PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS)

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