Texas came out firing from the outset of Saturday’s contest with West Virginia at the Moody Center.The Mountaineers never countered back, and as a result, remained winless away from home this season while suffering the program’s most lopsided loss in nine years.
Dylan Disu scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the first half on 7-for-7 shooting with five three-pointers, helping the Longhorns build a 25-point advantage en route their 94-58 victory.
Texas (16-8, 5-6) made 23-of-35 field goals in the first half, including half of its 16 three-point attempts.
“There’s a lot of things we can point at defensively that we didn’t do correct,” WVU interim head coach Josh Eilert said. “Their game plan right off the bat was to put [WVU center Jesse Edwards] in a ball screen and pick and pop with Disu. Credit to him. He was 4 for 4 from three to start the game. He knocked down shots and once you see a couple go down, we’ve seen it ourselves in the Kansas game, the floodgates can open for you.”
Outside of a 2-0 lead off an Edwards layup on the game’s first possession, West Virginia (8-15, 3-7) never led in what marked its most lopsided defeat since a 39-point season-ending loss to Kentucky in March 2015.
Two Disu triples and one from Max Abmas on three consecutive possessions allowed the Longhorns to turn a two-point advantage into an 18-7 lead in a matter of 49 seconds.
Disu made another triple with 9:26 left in the half to give Texas a 32-14 lead. He was from alone in doing damage to the Mountaineers over the first 20 minutes, as teammate Chendall Weaver was 4 for 4 with nine points and Dillion Mitchell added 10 on 5-for-7 shooting.
Leading 55-30 at halftime, Texas had 17 assists and two turnovers. The Mountaineers had 10 turnovers and five assists, though they made half of their field-goal attempts (12 for 24) on the strength of Edwards’ 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting.
Disu picked up where he left off to start the second half by connecting from long range and the Longhorns gained their first 30-point advantage to 70-40 when Abmas made his second of consecutive triples.
Texas’ largest lead was 43 at 92-49 before the Mountaineers ran off nine of the final 11 points.
The Mountaineers lost their final two trips to Austin while the Longhorns were members of the Big 12 by a total of 70 points.
“Really felt like it was deja vu here looking at this box score in this arena,” Eilert said. “Like I told the guys in the locker room, one way or another, I didn’t have you all ready to play and that’s on me.”
Disu finished 10 for 16 and made 7-of-10 threes. Abmas added five triples and 19 points, while Tyrese Hunter scored 19 as well on 8-of-12 shooting, including 3 of 4 from deep.
Weaver added 13 points on five shots and Mitchell scored 12 to go with a team-high eight rebounds.
The Longhorns’ starting five combined for all but four of the team’s points.
Texas finished with 28 assists and five turnovers.
“That’s the game right there. They were 100 percent the aggressor,” Eilert said. “They took it to us. They were physical with us and understand we struggle with that. That was their game plan and they executed to a T.”
Edwards led the Mountaineers with 17 points and nine rebounds.
“He was good,” Eilert said. “We tried to establish a presence inside.”
Noah Farrakhan added 11 points and eight boards.
Although WVU finished with a 37-36 rebounding advantage, the Mountaineers scored six points off turnovers to the Longhorns’ 29.
West Virginia, which has lost its first five Big 12 road games by an average of 20.2 points, is back in action Monday at TCU.
“We have to learn quick, but flush it and understand TCU is No. 1 in the country in fast break points,” Eilert said. “They really get downhill and turn people over. Texas doesn’t really turn you over much, but they did tonight. If we turn it over in Fort Worth, it could be ugly. I’ll take it on the chin and we weren’t ready to play. That’s on us.”
