Texas pulls out 87-82 win over No. 25 Mississippi State in overtime

Despite the best efforts of the Longhorns to give the game away in critical moments, Tre Johnson’s phenomenal effort and enough mistakes by the Bulldogs sunk the home team.

On Wednesday in Starkville, one team had two 10-second violations, a shot-clock violation that didn’t even include a shot attempt, and two turnovers in the final 4:27.

That team gave up a 12-point lead with 13:24 remaining, went 5-of-13 shooting on layups, had an uncharacteristically-high turnover rate of 21.1 percent, and finished minus-eight on made free throws.

That Texas Longhorns team also had Tre Johnson, superlative in another sharpshooting performance raining in 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 6-of-9 shooting from three, and did enough in overtime to pull out an unexpected 87-82 win over the No. 25 Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville on Tuesday.

A step-back three in the corner at a critical point of the second half was indicative of Johnson’s incredible practice preparation allowing his balance, rhythm, and pure stroke to shine.

As much as Johnson did to hit clutch shots, he needed some help, and got it from Longhorns senior wing Tramon Mark, back in the lineup after missing the loss to the other SEC Bulldogs on Saturday at the Moody Center due to a collision with Johnson going for a loss ball in the previous game against Arkansas.

Mark scored a game-high 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting, hitting 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, in a remarkable shooting effort for the two-time transfer, including scoring seven points on three jumpers between the under-eight and under-four media timeouts, a shot in the paint with 16 seconds remaining in regulation, a three within the first 1:08 of overtime, and two late free throws with 21 seconds remaining to help secure the victory.

The three in overtime came on an impressive crosscourt pass from Johnson into the corner after pivoting on a dribble drive.

A big putback dunk by senior forward Kadin Shedrick loomed large in regulation, and senior forward Arthur Kaluma was able to close out the game late despite plenty of mistakes by Texas against the Mississippi State pressure.

The execution against the 1-2-2 press employed by the Bulldogs was particularly glaring as Mississippi State mounted its comeback, forcing the backcourt turnovers and the shot-clock violation by Johnson with 1:41 remaining up four points when Texas was slow to get into its set and ran an action for Johnson that put him on the wing against the sideline with several defenders cutting off any chance of penetration.

At the end of regulation, Mark opted for his own shotmaking instead of throwing to the wing to Johnson after Mississippi State missed two go-ahead free throws, bricking a difficult three of his own instead of allowing the freshman phenom to step into an open shot from 25 feet.

Johnson was left standing despondent in his spot as embattled head coach Rodney Terry looked on in his own disbelief.

Put it all together and it was a supremely stupid victory for the Horns that also included senior guard Julian Larry getting out of his feet in transition and falling into the ball handler 30 feet from the basket with 13 seconds remaining up by four points after Mark got into the paint for his clutch mid-range shot three seconds earlier.

It’s was Larry’s fifth weak foul in a 24-minute effort that somehow left him plus-17 on the court despite all the stupid fouls and scoring just two points on three shots.

Other than Johnson’s brilliance and the return of Mark’s up-and-down shotmaking, a lot of how Texas played operated in the extremely opposing paradoxes of a team that has made frequent inexcusable mistakes in recent games with sloppy ball security, questionable shotmaking, and poor, hacking defense, but did enough well to secure a Quad 1 road win on Saturday that, temporarily at least, slightly resuscitated the team’s flatlining NCAA Tournament hopes ahead of the weekend rival game against Oklahoma in Austin to close the regular season.