The No. 10 seed Texas Longhorns crashed out in the first round of the SEC Tournament, falling behind early and never fully recovering in a 76-66 loss to the No. 15 seed Ole Miss Rebels for the team’s fifth loss in the last six games.
Forward Malik Dia scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the decisive first half as Ole Miss jumped out to a 16-6 lead and never looked back as Texas never led in Nashville.
The Rebels were only 1-of-10 shooting from three, but it didn’t matter as Chris Beard’s team only turned
the ball over three times, forced 13 turnovers by the Longhorns on 12 steals to gain a 13-0 edge in points off turnovers, and dominated in the paint with a 50-18 advantage.
The deep Ole Miss bench also created a decisive advantage with a 24-5 edge in bench points as Texas received 2-of-8 shooting from its three reserves.
With 13 made free throws, Texas junior wing Dailyn Swain led the Horns with 22 points, adding 12 rebounds and four assists, but Miller’s team largely did a poor job of understanding that the Rebels were sending extra defenders off the bounce against Swain and sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis, who turned the ball over three times, dealt with foul trouble, and finished with 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting. Senior guard Jordan Pope also experienced issues with his ball handling, turning it over four times and going 6-of-15 shooting. Graduate guard Tramon Mark finished with eight points in 21 minutes.
Texas only shot 35.2 percent overall, including 31 percent in the first half as Ole Miss took an 11-point lead into halftime.
At the first media timeout, Texas was still scoreless, having missed all six of their shot attempts and turned the ball over twice. When Mark finally scored the first points for Texas, his assisted lay in came at the 14:57 mark. A 2-of-13 shooting start for the Horns led to the early advantage for the Rebels, who had a 7-of-8 stretch to pull away.
In the second half, a 6-0 run helped Texas pull within three points when Pope with a three with 4:07 remaining, the closest the Longhorns had been since early in the game. But junior forward Cam Heide passed up a three to miss a layup and a turnover by Pope led to an alley-oop slam. After a second-chance score by the Rebels, Pope gave it away again, leading to a transition layup to make it a nine-point game and seal the outcome.
The expectation is that Texas will still make the NCAA Tournament, but the one-and-one appearance in Nashville will make Selection Sunday more stressful for Miller and his team.
