Buzzer-beater by Max Abmas lifts Texas men's basketball to win over Louisville in New York
NEW YORK CITY — Two of Texas’s newest players stepped up on one of the game’s biggest stages to lift the Longhorns to a thrilling 81-80 win over Louisville at the Empire Classic in Madison Square Garden.
Max Abmas, a graduate transfer from Oral Roberts in his first and only season with Texas, delivered the game-winner with a tough, fall-away jumper just outside the lane with .4 seconds left on the clock. But another new face in Virginia transfer Kadin Shedrick carried the team for long stretches of the game while scoring a career-high 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting.
Final: Texas 81, Louisville 80
Max Abmas! Ball game! He nails a tough fall-away jumper w/ .4 second left in the game! And Kadin Sedrick w/ a career-high 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting. pic.twitter.com/zctfIBgfdn— Thomas Jones (@ThomasJonesAAS) November 19, 2023
More: From treys to trophies, Texas' Max Abmas ready for lone year with Longhorns
With the win, No. 19 Texas (4-0) earned a spot in the tournament title game against fifth-ranked UConn, the defending national champion. The game will tip off at 6 p.m. CT.
Louisville (2-2) took a 70-69 lead with 4 minutes left in the game on a pair of free throws by Brandon Huntley-Hatfield before the teams traded the lead multiple times down the stretch. Key offensive rebounds by Brock Cunningham, Dillon Mitchell and Shedrick kept several possessions alive in the waning moments of the game, and a late defensive stop forced a shot-clock violation by Louisville with 7 seconds left in the game.
That last defensive stand set up the heroics by Abmas, who ended the game with 14 points.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Buzzer-beater by Max Abmas lifts Texas men's basketball to New York win