Quickly passing the ball up the court, graduate guard Tramon Mark found an open freshman guard Tre Johnson standing in the corner outside the three-point line.
With three seconds left on the clock, Johnson took his shot. If it went in, the Longhorns would be heading to overtime to continue an attempt for a third-straight ranked opponent win. But the sound of the ball bouncing off the rim was quickly followed by cheers erupting from a Rebel home crowd.
Ole Miss didn’t have to face another close game devastation. With a final score of 72–69, Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard got his first win against his former team and broke the team’s three-game losing streak.
“We know the relationship between both programs, and we know they came off a few losses so they’re going to be kind of a desperate team, trying to get back on and get started,” Johnson said before the game.
The Rebel’s desperation became bloody on both sides of the court, with three Longhorns and one Rebel having four personal fouls. One Rebel had to leave the court to patch an elbow, while another lost a contact lens. For Texas, graduate forward Kadin Shedrick’s head and lip were both bleeding by the end of the night after fighting for the ball off the glass.
It wasn’t just Shedrick fighting for the ball under the net, though. Texas played well off the glass as a whole, ending the night with 42 rebounds, nine more than Ole Miss. While Shedrick ended the night with six rebounds, senior forward Arthur Kaluma led the team with seven and four assists.
Kaluma’s physicality on the court, bodying his way towards the net, allowed him to create opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible with an aggressive Ole Miss defense.
And against that defense, Texas struggled to protect the basketball. Through 11 turnovers, Texas gave Ole Miss 13 points.
“We just know what it’s going to take and what we have to do,” Johnson said before the game. “We know our identity better now from our few games, knowing that we’ve got to play defense the way we’ve been playing lately if we want a shot at winning.”
While their defense did play at the level they needed to, the Longhorns were unable to pull away with a close win like against No. 13 Texas A&M.
Texas will play LSU on Saturday, Feb. 1, at 5 p.m. CT to try to take home an away win.