A tie game at halftime devolved into a blowout as the Horns bricked their way to an embarrassing defeat in their first SEC basketball game and fared just as poorly defensively.
With 27 seconds remaining, a sloppy reach-in foul committed by Texas Longhorns freshman guard Tre Johnson marked the 24th and final whistle against the Longhorns, leading to the 31st and 32nd free-throw attempts by the No. 13 Texas A&M Aggies. The two made free throws secured the final 80-60 margin at Reed Arena in College Station as the Aggies managed to push around the Longhorns while getting called for seven fewer fouls and attempting 12 more free throws.
It was a glaring disparity that helped Texas A&M turn a 37-37 game at halftime into a 20-point rout in the second half as Texas went 6-of-24 shooting from the floor, including 1-of-12 shooting from three-point range and turning the ball over six times in a disastrous 20 minutes of basketball.
During that embarrassing second-half performance by the Longhorns, the Aggies shot 45.5 percent from the floor and secured eight offensive rebounds that turned into 12 second-chance points.
Perhaps more importantly, Texas struggled to contain dribble penetration, fight around bigs in the paint to secure effective defensive rotations, and showed no ability to play with verticality, instead settling for reaching and slapping at the basketball.
On Thursday, Longhorns head coach Rodney Terry was adamant that 50-50 effort plays would define the outcome and that was the case on Saturday with one stretch during the second half standing out in particular.
Despite a 15-2 Texas A&M run to break open that tie game at halftime, Texas managed to cut the deficit to five points with 7:48 remaining after two free throws by senior forward Tramon Mark.
On the other end, the Aggies missed a three-pointer, a common theme in a 2-of-19 shooting performance from beyond the arc, but Texas A&M guard Hayden Hefner came up with an offensive rebound and a put back. Twenty-five seconds later, Aggies guard Wade Taylor threw an alley-pop to forward Pharrel Payne that went over the outstretched arm of Longhorns forward Kadin Shedrick, who was unable to deflect the pass.
Those two plays sparked a defining 21-5 run by Texas A&M that featured five layups and six free throws with the paint buckets and the trips to the free-throw line illustrating the failures of the Texas defense, the area that Terry wants to be a team strength.
Ultimately, the Aggies were plus-10 in made layups and plus-seven in made free throws, accounting for most of the final margin.
When the Horns were able to get out in transition, including a 12-0 advantage in fast-break points in the first half, they were able to hang with the Aggies. But when Texas A&M was able to limit those opportunities in the second half, Texas couldn’t keep it close.
A three-quarter court pressure utilized by Aggies head coach Buzz Williams created some sloppy turnovers by the Longhorns and also shortened the shot clock, forcing Texas to get into its initial actions after 10 or 15 seconds of possession.
Struggles by Johnson also made a big difference — the star freshman was 2-of-13 shooting and missed all five of his three-point attempts. And while a fair number of those shot attempts were contested, Johnson also missed shots that he expects to make, contributing to a level of frustration that perhaps influenced his second-half performance, which featured only a single made basket on seven shot attempts. Johnson finished minus-28 on the court.
While Johnson did score 11 points thanks to a 7-of-7 performance from the free-throw line, Texas also got 12 points on nine shot attempts from junior guard Jordan Pope, 13 points from senior forward Arthur Kaluma on eight shot attempts, and 14 points from Mark on nine shot attempts, but little else.
Shedrick went scoreless in 27 minutes with three turnovers and the Longhorns only got 10 points from the bench, including a one-point performance from junior guard Chendall Weaver, who missed his only shot attempt while turning the ball over twice and committing four fouls. Senior forward Jayson Kent scored three points on 1-of-6 shooting in 22 minutes.
With four more top-25 opponents looming for Texas in the next four games, the schedule won’t get any easier even as the Longhorns showed so much needed room for improvement.