An ugly win over the Tigers was crucial for the NCAA Tournament resume of the Longhorns.
Few things came easily in a 61-53 win for the Texas Longhorns over the No. 22 Missouri Tigers at the Moody Center on Tuesday, a hard-nosed, physical first SEC home win in program history for head coach Rodney Terry’s team that came at a crucial moment amidst a 1-4 start to conference play with NCAA Tournament resume-building wins at a premium.
The fifth ranked opponent in six SEC games continued the opening gauntlet for the Horns as Terry deployed a deliberate, pragmatic strategy against Missouri executed well by Texas in winning 50-50 balls on the way to a 20-4 advantage in second-chance points thanks to a 14-8 edge in offensive rebounds, crashing the offensive glass against some undersized lineups deployed by the Tigers.
Some of the plays were made between the margins, hustle plays to the floor to force jump balls or creating deflections, but the biggest offensive rebound for Texas came with 1:54 remaining when senior forward Arthur Kaluma laid in a missed three for a 56-50 lead after freshman guard Tre Johnson was open but somehow not shot-ready in a 3-for-15 shooting performance.
The next critical play came 40 seconds later when 7’0, 260-pound Missouri center Josh Gray got out of control in transition and Texas senior forward Kadin Shedrick drew the offensive foul.
As the Tigers defense expected another deliberate possession by a Longhorns team that only had 57 possessions, Johnson attacked off the bounce and made a contested left-handed layup that pushed the game out of reach for Missouri.
A double-double with a team-high 14 points and a team-high 12 rebounds highlighted the performance from Kaluma, who added two assists, two blocks, and two steals.
Johnson managed 12 points despite his poor shooting, including a 1-for-8 performance from three, as Shedrick provided nine points and nine rebounds to make up for three turnovers and three fouls. The key stat for Shedrick? A plus-12 finish in plus-minus, eight points better than any of his teammates and equal to the final margin.
The start to the game was as frigid as the unseasonably cold temperature outside of the Mood in Austin — it went into its second timeout with Missouri clinging to a rugged 6-5 lead over Texas, which had just scored its first basket from the floor on a contested layup by Shedrick at the 11:48 mark that featured enough post-shot contact for a Missouri player to hit the floor, emblematic physicality in a game that featured physically contested 50-50 balls and plenty of uncalled contact.
Shedrick’s layup came after eight missed shots and four turnovers by the Horns to start the game, a remarkable number of giveaways by a team that entered the game 11th in turnovers per game at 9.6, arguably making it the worst stretch of basketball by Texas all season.
Coming out of the second media timeout, however, the Horns were gifted an unusual lead when a goaltending call on Kaluma was reversed, handing Texas a 5-4 lead with 11:12 remaining in the first half of a basketball game, a particular sequence of words that is as unusual as it is ugly.
So when Texas forced a turnover and senior forward Jayson Kent hit a pull-up jump shot in transition, the overturned goaltending and the basket marked a huge swing in the game of four points, 44.4 percent of the total points scored after the review.
Two made threes by Longhorns junior guard Jordan Pope, the second coming after an offensive rebound and two quick passes, extended the Texas lead to 13-8 in the midst of a veritable offensive explosion, comparatively speaking.
Missouri got to the rim and the free-throw line for high-quality looks in scoring eight points over less than two minutes. Call it an offensive explosion on both ends, then. Comparatively.
Somehow, as the officials finally inserted themselves into the game, it was on minimal contact by Texas defensively with six fouls whistled against the home team. When the Tigers play poorly, the outcomes are related to the free-throw rate and that was reflected in what the Horns did well — playing aggressive enough to draw some fouls and attempt 10 free throws, hitting eight, including six over a stretch of a little more than two minutes between the third and fourth media timeouts.
The Longhorns stretched the margin to 30-20 after Johnson picked up a little rhythm by hitting four straight free throws, dribbling across Kaluma for a step-in three in semi-transition, and then hitting a three of his own, his first made basket with 1:57 left in the half on his fifth attempt.
Missouri responded with a five-point surge from Iowa State transfer Caleb Grill, the most dangerous deep shooter for the Tigers at close 50 percent from distance this season and coming off a hot streak as the SEC Player of the Week after scoring 19.5 points per game and hitting 9-of-15 three-pointers over two games.
A lob dunk for Texas senior wing Tramon Mark, his first bucket of the first half, and a missed layup by Grill on a defensive bust by the Horns allowed the home team to take a 23-25 lead and 82.3-percent win probability into halftime by dropping the turnover rate to 17.9 percent and hitting four of their final five three-point attempts.
Although Missouri took a four-point lead with 8:43 remaining, Texas responded with three free throws before going on a 7-0 run that ultimately decided the game.
The Horns return to the Moody Center on Saturday for a rivalry rematch with the No. 13 Aggies, 80-60 winners in the Lone Star Showdown return in the SEC debut for Texas earlier this month.