Junior guard Jordan Pope set up for a three, but when the ball went in, there was no loud applause from the Texas men’s basketball bench.
It was too late. Only two seconds remained on the clock, and Vanderbilt was ahead by six points.
In its first time playing in Memorial Gymnasium since 1979, Texas added a road game loss to its season record, falling 86–78.
“You gotta try to do everything you can in your power to try to defend home court,” head coach Rodney Terry said after their Arkansas loss at home. “Because you go on the road and play tough venues against really good teams, it’s going to be a long night.”
And it ended up being a long day for the Longhorns. Although Texas had the lead for a significant portion of the game, they didn’t have the lead when it counted.
Texas lost the game through unfortunate mistakes, starting with freshman guard Tre Johnson losing his handle on the ball while going up for a layup.
When the Commodores got the ball off of Johnson’s missed shot, graduate forward Kadin Shedrick tried to stop their drive up the court and picked up the foul.
The Commodores tied the game, then went on a 7–0 run. Just like earlier in the game when Texas went on a 12–0 run, Vanderbilt began to find open space on the court, pushing into the paint. Both teams may have finished the night with a field goal percentage of 42, but they got there at different points of the game.
Vanderbilt found itself on the free-throw line again, this time in the lead at 68–65. Sophomore point guard Jaylen Carey took the shot and missed, so far off from the net that Shedrick wasn’t prepared.
Shedrick tried to keep the ball in but failed and ended up turning it back over to Vanderbilt. The Commodores made the Longhorns pay for that mistake with a three-point stepback jumper.
Despite the game within two possessions, the Longhorns were unable to catch back up to the Commodores. Texas only made three of 11 field goals attempted in the last few minutes of the game.
With the loss, Vanderbilt now leads the all-time series 5–4, and Texas comes back home to play No. 3 Alabama on Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 8 p.m. CT.
