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The NCAA Tournament hopes for the Texas Longhorns suffered a significant but not fateful blow on Saturday in a 88-85 overtime loss to the surging Oklahoma Sooners at the Moody Center.
Sean Miller’s team was able to overcome a 12-point deficit late in the second half to send the game into overtime thanks to a 20-8 run at the end of regulation, including senior guard Jordan Pope drawing a foul on a three-point attempt with three seconds left, converting all three at the line to send the game into the extra period.
In overtime, Texas gave up a late-clock layup on the first possession by Oklahoma and graduate guard Tramon Mark missed a point-blank look at the rim on the other end. After bad turnovers by both teams and a missed layup by the Sooners, Pope made a jumper to tie it, but fell behind again when Pope fouled Oklahoma guard Nijel Pack going for a loose ball after a missed three by Pack.
The Kansas State and Miami transfer made both at the line, but Mark couldn’t do the same on the other end after drawing a shooting foul before Pope regained the lead for Texas with a second-chance three-pointer. Fourteen seconds later, a tip in by Muhammad Wague put the Sooners back in front. When Pope missed a jumper and Oklahoma secured the defensive rebound with 35 seconds left and a one-point lead, Miller opted not to foul. But the Horns did the one thing they couldn’t do in that situation — give up an open three, which is exactly what happened, and it was buried by Derrion Reid for a four-point lead with 11 seconds remaining, sealing the outcome.
Pope bounced back from scoring zero points and committing four fouls in Wednesday’s blowout loss to Arkansas in Fayetteville, scoring a game-high 30 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the free-throw line and 7-of-18 shooting from three.
Texas badly needed those contributions to stay in the game because Mark had to rebound from a poor first half to score a team-high 12 points after halftime.
Junior wing Dailyn Swain added 18 points, seven rebounds, eight assists, and three steals in an impressive all-around effort and sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis scored 17 points in an efficient performance that saw the big Lithuanian go 5-of-6 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting from the line.
It wasn’t enough, though, thanks to a consistent storyline for the Longhorns this season — the inability to slow down opposing guards. Pack scored 23 points and finished a game-best plus-15 on the court and Xzayvier Brown poured in 21 points with four assists and four steals.
In a close game in which neither team had a significant edge in most statistical categories, the lack of impact from the Texas bench stood out as Oklahoma notched an 11-4 edge because the Longhorns didn’t receive much production from junior guard Simeon Wilcher, junior forward Cam Heide, and sophomore forward Nic Codie — the three players combined to 1-of-8 shooting. And senior guard Chendall Weaver, into the starting lineup on Senior Night, only scored two points in 21 minutes.
With the loss, Texas was unable to secure a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament and will face No. 15 seed Ole Miss on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. Central on SEC Network.
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