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3 takeaways from Texas’s must-win SEC Tournament victory over Vanderbilt
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Texas took care of business of Wednesday afternoon in Nashville. The Longhorns dominated much of the game and withstood a late Vanderbilt rally to win 79-72 in the opening round of the SEC Tournament, keeping their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
Vanderbilt only briefly led in the early going when scoring was scarce. The Commodores last led 7-5 at the 15:21 mark of the 1st half. Texas tied it up then went ahead 9-7 at the 14:13 mark and never looked back. The Longhorns held a 15-point advantage at the half (41-26), and managed a comfortable lead deep into the 2nd half before Vanderbilt briefly made things interesting again.
Here are 3 quick takeaways from the game:
Too little too late for Vandy after early struggles
Only a short drive from campus, Vanderbilt didn’t feel too comfortable in the 1st half at Bridgestone Arena. The Texas defense got the better of the Commodores early.
In the 1st half, Vandy made just 9-of-29 field goal attempts, shooting 31% from the field. Poor shooting put the Dores in a hole, and it proved too much to overcome.
Late in the 2nd half, Texas went cold and the Commodore offense woke up. What had been a double-digit deficit much of the 2nd half was cut to single digits in the final 3 minutes.
The Commodores brought their shooting percentage up to 40.4% with a strong 2nd half, particularly the late rally, but it was too little, too late.
Tre Johnson bounces back
Tre Johnson was back to looking more like Tre Johnson on Wednesday. After going 0-of-14 from the field in Texas’s loss to Oklahoma in the regular-season finale, Johnson looked more like the player who was named SEC Freshman of the Year.
Johnson made 6-of-19 field-goal attempts, including 3 of Texas’s 4 3-pointers on the day. Tramon Mark also had 19 points. They were joined in double figures by Jordan Pope (14 points) and Arthur Kaluma (11).
Also of note, Jayson Kent grabbed 10 rebounds, scoring 2 points.
A must-win for Texas
Texas entered the SEC Tournament on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Wednesday, ESPN bracketology expert Joe Lunardi placed the Longhorns in the First Four Out category and wrote that they would be out of chances to make the Big Dance with another loss.
One win may not be enough to make the field of 68, but Texas has lived to fight another day. Up next, Texas will face in-state rival Texas A&M. The Longhorns and Aggies split the Lone Star Showdown in January, with A&M winning 80-60 on Jan. 4 in College Station and Texas winning 70-69 on Jan. 25 in Austin.
The Aggies got a first-round bye as the tournament’s No. 5 seed.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
