West Virginia snapped a slow start to Big 12 play by upending No. 25 Texas 76-73 inside the Coliseum Saturday.
The Mountaineers moved to 6-10 overall and are now 1-2 in the Big 12 Conference outlasting the Longhorns in a closely contested contest throughout.
Forward Patrick Suemnick scored 16 points, while guard Kerr Kriisa added 14, guard RaeQuan Battle 14 points and forward Quinn Slazinski hit 13 points for West Virginia.
The Mountaineers led 5-4 a little over two minutes into the game with a Kriisa three-ball and Battle jumper supplying the scoring. The two teams played things close through the first eight minutes of the game with West Virginia holding a 15-11 lead with 11:30 mark.
The Longhorns took the lead back at 19-18 as the first half clocked ticked toward under six minutes remaining with the pace of play choppy between the two teams.
The back and forth between the two would continue deep into the first half with the game tied at 26-all with 1:55 remaining until halftime. And the Mountaineers would take a 30-28 lead into the halftime break.
Suemnick was a stabilizing presence in the first half scoring 11 points with 4 rebounds and several hustles including a pair of highlight reel dunks. The Mountaineers also limited Texas to just 12 points in the paint and 38 percent from the floor in the first half.
A Kriisa three would also open the scoring in the second half to give West Virginia a 33-30 edge after a couple of trips down the floor. That lead would sit at 40-38 at the 15-minute mark as the two teams continued to exchange blows.
The score would sit at 48-45 at the under 12-media timeout with West Virginia continuing to cause issues for the visiting Longhorns on both ends although the two teams did seem to find more rhythm than in the first half.
West Virginia would push the edge out to 55-48 with 7:51 remaining and that score would hold until head coach Josh Eilert took a timeout with 6:33 left. The Mountaineers would push the lead out to 11 but the Longhorns would quickly cut the score to 59-53.
Texas would chip away even further to cut the score to 63-59 with 2:16 left but Dylan Disu would foul out of the ball game for the Longhorns and allow Kriisa to hit a pair of free throws to give the home team some more breathing room.
The two teams continued to battle down the stretch with Max Abmas taking over the heavy lifting for the Longhorns in the scoring department.
With the score 68-65, Noah Farrakhan would connect with Akok Akok on a dunk to push the edge to 70-65 with 36.2 remaining to play in the game and the defense would get a stop. From there, the Mountaineers would connect on one of two and Abmas would again hit a three to cut the lead to just 71-68 with 22.2 left.
The two teams exchanged free throws to put the score at 73-70 with 14.2 left and after a pair of Battle free throws the Mountaineers would get a steal to ice the game.
West Virginia will next travel to Oklahoma to play the Sooners at 8 p.m. Wednesday night. The game will be televised by ESPN+.
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