Second-half surge pushes Vanderbilt past Texas in 86-78 victory

The decisive run by the Commodores came as the Longhorns suffered a 1-of-10 shooting stretch in crunch time.

The NCAA Tournament hopes for the Texas Longhorns took another step back on Saturday in Nashville when the Vanderbilt Commodores took advantage of a 1-of-10 shooting stretch by the Longhorns late, including a 6:31 stretch without making a shot from the floor, to secure an 86-78 victory at Memorial Gymnasium.

Vanderbilt guards AJ Hoggard and Jason Edwards took over down the stretch as Hoggard scored all 14 of his points in the second half after missing his first 10 shot attempts, scoring eight straight points for the Commodores, and Edwards contributed eight points in a 10-0 run by Vanderbilt that regained a lead the home team never relinquished over the final 6:19.

If the guards made the difference in crunch time, a game-high 18 points by Vanderbilt forward Jaylen Carey, who added 14 rebounds, provided a big first-half interior punch with 10 points and five offensive rebounds.

Texas also struggled to contain sharpshooting Commodores guard Tyler Nickel, who matched the 17 points by Edwards by hitting four threes as the Longhorns struggled to execute its scouting report on Nickel.

Four players reached double digits in scoring for Texas, led by 15 points on 14 shots by freshman guard Tre Johnson, but senior forward Kadin Shedrick was limited to 22 minutes because of foul trouble that eventually resulted in his disqualification. Shedrick played well when he was on the court, scoring 12 points, coming up with five offensive rebounds, and blocking four shots.

The bench help just wasn’t there in the frontcourt, a frequent issue for these Longhorns as senior forward Ze’Rik Onyema and freshman forward Nic Codie played 10 minutes without even attempting a shot between them and senior forward Jayson Kent was minus-12 in 13 minutes despite recording four offensive rebounds and eight points on 3-of-4 shooting.

When Shedrick was on the bench in foul trouble during the critical second-half run by Vanderbilt, it was Kent on the court struggling to keep Texas in the game.

The Longhorns didn’t get enough from two key starters, either — junior guard Jordan Pope was 3-of-10 shooting on a combination of some missed open looks and a forced shot or two and senior forward Arthur Kaluma was 3-of-11 shooting and couldn’t connect on several quality looks from three, missing all three of attempts beyond the arc.

Unlike Wednesday’s loss to Arkansas, Texas got off to a fast start, scoring the game’s first seven points by hitting three consecutive shots, but by the under-16 timeout, the lead stood at 9-6 thanks to a scoring drought of nearly three minutes for the Horns.

A runout for sophomore wing Devon Pryor ended that drought at a little over four minutes and included the athletic backup converting the three-point play at the line.

With Vanderbilt struggling from the floor, the mediocre offensive rebounding team was able to create extra possessions by grabbing eight of their own misses in the first 6:37, leading to nine second-chance points.

Texas head coach Rodney Terry cycled through most of his frontcourt trying to slow down the 6’8, 265-pound Carey, who scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting with four offensive rebounds in his five game-changing minutes heading into the under-12 timeout as the Commodores went on a 9-0 run to take a 17-12 lead when Carey slipped a screen for a resounding slam.

A three extended the run as Carey’s energy offensively elevated the team’s energy defensively as the sloppy giveaways by Texas started to look like the first part of the Arkansas game. When the Horns started to hit some shots, the Commodores were in the midst of their own hot shooting streak, a 6-of-7 stretch that included three consecutive threes that pushed the Vanderbilt lead to as many as nine points prior to the third media break.

Texas made a brief surge, but Vanderbilt responded when Nickel inexplicably got loose for two open looks he buried to extend the lead back to nine at the 6:45 mark.

A gamble on the perimeter defensively by the Commodores came against the wrong player — Johnson, who hit the three for his first points of the game, giving him enough rhythm to hit a corner jumper and then attacked the paint, missing the shot, but getting a putback from Kent before a free throw from Kaluma cut the deficit to one point.

Senior guard Julian Larry hit a three out of the timeout to regain the lead on the 11-0 run during a scoring drought of more than four minutes for the home team.

The first offensive rebound for Vanderbilt in more than 11 minutes came on a loose ball that Larry contested late for a foul, then got beat off the bounce for a layup by Edwards to end the scoreless stretch at 4:32 and seven straight misses.

Texas took a 39-35 lead into halftime when Vanderbilt missed four more shots to end the half, which finished with a rugged loose-ball skirmish in the paint between Carey and the Longhorns frontcourt won by Onyema.

Over the final 6:22 of the first half, the Horns outscored the Commodores 15-2, an important surge Texas couldn’t make stand as ultimately defining the game even though Vanderbilt went 1-of-12 shooting to end the half, dropping their shooting percentage to 31.7 percent.

Higher tempo from both teams opened the game up out of halftime with Texas posting an 11-9 edge at the under-16 timeout to lead 50-44 as Johnson hit a three and Shedrick scored two baskets, although two quick fouls on Shedrick put him at three for the game, joining Carey and Devin McGlockton, Vanderbilt’s best frontcourt players.

Texas pushed the run to 10-0 for a 10-point lead, including Pryor’s twisting, banked layup on a lob from Johnson was the third second-half assist from the star freshman.

Pryor got open for two dunks during that stretch of the second half with the second coming on a sweet bounce pass from Onyema.

Vanderbilt responded with Nickel creating space against Pryor in the paint for a jumper, Carey making two free throws and getting a typically physical layup against Onyema, and Nickel taking advantage of poor recognition by Johnson not to challenge a catch-and-shoot opportunity by hitting a three that forced a timeout by Terry with the lead down to three points.

Johnson responded out of the timeout, driving for a difficult left-handed layup from the right side of the rim and somehow getting wide open in the corner in transition to guide in a rattled three.

But Hoggard was also heating up for Vanderbilt after his ice-cold shooting start, hitting a three, getting into the lane for a three-point play, and drawing Shedrick’s fourth foul on a block Shedrick thought was clean.

The Texas starting forward was only in that position because a good back-door cut by Johnson wasn’t converted when he lost the ball going up for a clean dunk, a four-point swing made all the worse by the critical foul on Shedrick.

The game went into the under-eight timeout tied at 61-61 after Pryor missed an open three and Johnson missed an open jumper.

Jayson Kent’s activity level made a difference for Texas in a flurry of three offensive rebounds, including off his own missed free throw that led to a missed open three by Johnson, but his second trip to the line was completely empty. The Bradley and Indiana State transfer made up for it by hitting a corner three to end a stretch of three minutes without a basket from the floor for Texas.

But Vanderbilt surged in front again behind five straight points from Edwards, who made a desperation jump shot through contact for a three-point play, and a three-point play opportunity by Carey muscling through Kent that went lacking at the line, but went in favor of the Commodores when the free throw was missed so badly Shedrick couldn’t control it.

Edwards took advantage of the extra possession by hitting a contested three to take a six-point lead amidst a 10-0 run that Johnson broke at the free-throw line as the Longhorns got into the bonus.

With Texas in a 1-of-8 shooting stretch, the momentum favored Vanderbilt when Carey put the Commodores up by six by tipping in a missed layup by Edwards at the 4:05 mark.

Kaluma turned the ball over trying to throw a pocket pass to Shedrick in traffic, Johnson missed the front end of a one-and-one after drawing a foul on a rip move, and Pryor got beat off the bounce for a layup by Hoggard for an eight-point lead.

A drive by Kaluma produced the fifth foul on McGlockton and two made free throws at the 2:22 mark, but the Longhorns were already in a difficult position.

Patiently, Vanderbilt got the mismatch they wanted with Hoggard against Shedrick, a battle won by Hoggard in the paint with a strong move. Free throws by Larry kept pace before a shot-clock violation forced by a good late-clock defense. The game clock favored the Commodores, however, especially after Kaluma missed an open three and Texas was slow to foul after Vanderbilt came up with the rebound.

Nickel converted his trip and an off-balance miss by Kaluma led to a break-out dunk to put the game away and send Texas to its second-straight defeat, a result made all the more disappointing by both losses coming against unranked opponents.

The Longhorns return to the Moody Center on Wednesday as the No. 3 Crimson Tide come to Austin.