There was no way the University of Utah Runnin' Utes could beat the Texas Longhorns Wednesday night - if Tremaine Wingfield had anything to say about it.
He did.Wingfield rescued Texas from certain defeat by hitting a shot to tie with two-tenths of a second left in regulation and then hit the game winner at the buzzer of the second overtime, giving the Longhorns a 93-91 victory over Utah.
After calling timeout with 1.4 seconds left in the second overtime, Tommy Penders lobbed a full court pass to Wingfield near the top of the key. Wingfield turned and banked his shot off the glass through the net as the buzzer sounded, ending a gut-wrenching battle in which Texas lost an 18-point lead with 5:40 left in regulation.
Texas, coming off of an 87-75 victory over Oklahoma Monday night and its fifth game in nine days, won its fourth straight to improve to 6-4. Utah, fell to 6-3 and was led by Darroll Wright with 29 points, who put on a flashy exhibition of twisting drives and long-range bombing.
Utah appeared to have the game won at the end of regulation. The Longhorns set up for the final shot with the game tied at 76, but B.J. Tyler, who finished with 26 points, missed his 10-footer with three seconds on the clock and Utah's Keith Van Horn threw the rebound to Mark Rydalch, who was then fouled mistakenly by Tyler with two tenths of a second left.
Rydalch hit both free throws, giving Utah a 78-76 lead with no time running off the clock. But Penders gave a foreshadowing of the game-winning play by running the baseline and throwing a perfect bomb to Wingfield, who was on the left wing and let loose a 17-foot turnaround jumper that swished through. There was a question about whether the shot was released before the buzzer, but the officials called the shot good and the game went into overtime.
Utah coach Rick Majerus called the two shots "lucky."
"But," he continued, "a team needs to put itself in position to be lucky, and Texas did."
Utah played well in the first half and was down by only six points at the half - 37-31. Texas took control in the second half and went up by as many as 18 points.