Coming in with hopes of redeeming itself after last month’s tight overtime loss at home, Texas men’s basketball took a tragic loss against No. 3 Houston 82-61.

While Texas did not come close to performing the way it did against the Cougars at home earlier this season, the main factor of its loss stems from the suffocating Houston defense. The Cougars are still ranked first in the country in tier defense with an adjusted defensive efficiency of 86.4, meaning out of 100 attempts from an average Division I team, Houston only gives up an average of 86.4 points. Houston held Texas to 61 points, the lowest score it has had all season.

Houston accumulated 19 points off forced turnovers alone, had 14 points off second chance opportunities and 16 fast break points all because of its defensive edge. 

The Longhorns were able to keep the game close at the beginning of the matchup, but ultimately let the game slip away after just 10 minutes of the play, finishing the half trailing 52-29. The fact of the matter was that they could not move the ball fluidly and failed to find any scoring opportunities most of the time they were on offense. Texas did not have the lead at any point in the entirety of the game.

While Texas shot a decent 42.9% from the floor in comparison to Houston’s 46.7%, the Longhorns fell in an area that they have been excelling in this season — three-pointers. Texas went 2-9 from three-point attempts while the Cougars shot 45.5% from beyond the arc, making 5 out of 11.

Graduate forward Dylan Disu has had tremendous success in three-point shooting for Texas this season, collecting the only two made threes of the game for Texas. Disu finished the game as the leading scorer for Texas with 16 points and seven rebounds.

Another factor that was absent for Texas was star graduate guard Max Abmas. Abmas accumulated seven points, a low for one of the Longhorns’ leading scorers.

Sophomore guard Chendall Weaver was the next leading scorer with 11 points and four rebounds, while junior guard Tyrese Hunter and graduate forward Kadin Shedrick finished with seven points each and graduate forward Brock Cunningham was held to five points, two rebounds and two assists.

Texas now sits at 5-7 in conference play and with only six more guaranteed games on the horizon, the future for the Longhorns looks bleak, who haven’t finished with a record below .500 in conference play since 2018. The Longhorns now look to take on Kansas State at 8 p.m. on Monday back at home in the Moody Center.