Texas A&M beats up Texas, 80-60, in the Longhorns' opening game of SEC play
Texas wasn’t SEC ready on Saturday night.
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After entering halftime tied at 37, the No. 13 Texas A&M Aggies physically dominated the Longhorns. A&M outscored Texas 43-23 in the second half, beating Texas to loose balls, offensive rebounds, and overall giving a better effort in a 80-60 loss for the Horns.
Texas lost its SEC opener, and lost to the Aggies for the first time since 2010.
The Aggies started the second half on a 13-2 run to make it 52-39. The Longhorns cut the Aggie lead to as small as five points with 7:48 to play, but A&M responded again with a 6-0 run that opened the floodgates. A&M scored 21 points over the final 7:30 to Texas’ eight.
Most of those points were either at the line or in the paint. Buzz Williams’ team challenged the Longhorns inside the paint at either end, and Texas was not up for the challenge. A&M finished with 48 points in the paint, won the offensive rebounding battle 11-5, and were 24-for-32 from the stripe, putting the game at its final margin despite going 2-for-19 from three.
The Longhorns were run off their marks often, shooting a paltry 6-for-24 in the second half and an even worse 1-for-12 from three. Tre Johnson had a poor evening in his first career road loss, posting double-figures in scoring with 11 points but shooting 2-for-13 from the field and 0-for-5 from three-point land. It was his second lowest scoring output, his worst night from the field, and his first game without a three-pointer made.
Texas built a lead as large as eight in the first half thanks to nine early points by Tramon Mark. The Horns then led 32-26 with under seven minutes remaining in the half before a 9-0 run from the Aggies gave them a four-point lead. Buckets traded over the final 103 seconds put the game at 37-all at halftime.
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Jordan Pope had 12 points, Arthur Kaluma had 11 points and seven rebounds, and Mark led the Longhorns with 14 points. On the night, Texas shot 35 percent from the field, 27 percent from three-point land, and 85 percent from the stripe. Texas committed 12 turnovers to A&M’s seven, and had just 10 bench points.
For the Aggies, Zhuric Phelps lead all scorers with 18 points, Pharrell Payne had 15 points, Wade Taylor IV had 13 points, and Manny Obaseki had 10 points. Taylor IV was not as big a factor as expected, having to leave the game in the first half due to what appeared to be a lower body ailment. His 25 minutes was the second fewest for the star senior on the season.
The Longhorns’ schedule only gets more difficult in the coming weeks. Texas hosts No. 2 Auburn on January 7 before Rick Barnes and the No. 1 Tennessee Volunteers come to town on January 11. Then, Texas travels to No. 12 Oklahoma on January 15 before turning around and visiting No. 6 Florida on January 18.
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The Longhorns didn’t give the physical effort needed to get the result they wanted, something that will need to change, among other things, as they continue the rest of conference play.
