Let the good times roll — or, how they say it in Louisiana around Mardi Gras, “Laissez les bons temps rouler.”
While the parade floats rolled down St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, or around downtown Baton Rouge, in Austin, Texas men’s basketball survived a second wind from the LSU Tigers, 88-85, and rolled to its fifth consecutive Southeastern Conference victory Tuesday night at the Moody Center.
“We can do better,” Texas head coach Sean Miller said. “ We have recently been better than that, and our defense in the second half took a heck of a punch.”
Texas closed out the first half with strong offensive production, mostly from the three-headed monster of junior forward Dailyn Swain, senior guard Jordan Pope and graduate guard Tramon Mark.
The Longhorn trio all hit double digits in the first half to put Texas in a very comfortable position at halftime, leading the Tigers, 48-33. But memories of the SEC opener against Mississippi State quickly appeared for the Longhorns.
LSU found a second wind heading after, clawing away its 15-point deficit with impressive offense production and a faulting Texas defense.
“Everything was clicking in the first half … we were getting stops. We were scoring at ease,” Mark said. “It was a great half. I wish it could have translated to the second half.”
The Tigers put up 52 points in the second half, a stark change from their struggles in the first. In the final two minutes, LSU was able to shave away the game into a one-possession game. Tigers senior guard Max Mackinnon, LSU’s leading scorer tonight, took control of the second, scoring 21 points.
“The difference is we got the win,” Mark said. “We didn’t have a good second half. We all know that. But down the stretch, we were able to get the stops we really needed, and we were able to finish the game.”
Swain, the Longhorns’ dynamic guard, was limited almost the entire game with LSU baiting him into fouls, and he quickly found himself in foul trouble early. Swain sat on the bench for large swaths of both halves, playing only 21 minutes tonight — a far cry from his average this season.
Still, Swain led the Longhorns as the main offensive scorer with 21 points and picked up 10 rebounds for a double-double.
“One of the things I’m the most proud of about our team tonight is we did play almost the entire last 10, 12 minutes of the first half without (Swain) and we were up 15 into half,” Miller said. “We really had some guys step up. And I really credit Tramon Mark … this was one of his best games of the season.”
With the limited minutes from Swain, Mark and Pope were able to fill in the void for a productive performance, the two combining for 36 points.
The Longhorns, still without fellow big man graduate forward Lassina Traore, gave the keys once again to sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis as Texas’ only option to patrol under the basket. In 33 minutes, Vokietaitis recorded his second straight double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Texas will face the Georgia Bulldogs this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Georgia.
