Tre Johnson sparks furious Longhorns comeback win over Aggies giving Rodney Terry a sense of SEC relief
Longhorns’ 22-point come-from-behind win is the biggest comeback since February 2013
Granted, it was just one game in late January, but if there was ever a time Rodney Terry needed his Longhorns to summon their best, it sure was Saturday.
Texas A&M ran up a 22-point lead in the second half as Buzz Williams’ Aggies ran roughshod through Moody Center. They hit eight 3-pointers in the first half and gobbled up all the offensive rebounds on those they missed.
Arch Manning isn’t a miracle worker, apparently. Texas’ future starting quarterback threw T-shirts into the stands when the Horns needed someone to start throwing the ball through the hoop.
But in the locker room during halftime, Terry said the players “were really kind of policing themselves.” The Longhorns chose to get off the mat, claw all the way back and Tramon Mark’s left-handed layup with three seconds left sealed the deal — a come-from-behind 70-69 win.
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It was the biggest comeback win anybody could find since a 22-point rally and double-overtime win over Oklahoma in February 2013. The Longhorns (14-6, 3-4 SEC) could have easily waived the white flag in this one. Instead, they were jumping into each other’s arms in jubilation.
It's still a long uphill climb to the NCAA Tournament, but the Horns are chugging along.
“These guys get all the credit,” Terry said, motioning to Tre Johnson and Mark in the post-game news conference. “They made their minds up at halftime they were going to come out and play Texas basketball. They were going to display some Texas Fight.”
Judging from the box score, this shouldn’t have happened. It should’ve been a maroon-flavored rout.
Texas A&M (15-5, 4-3) tied its season high with 12 made 3-pointers and had a plus-16 edge on the glass. But Johnson scored 24 of his season-high 30 points in the second half and was fired up after hearing some Aggies “talking trash” when they won the first matchup by 20 three weeks ago.
Asked what the Aggies said, Johnson said, “You gotta ask them that. I don’t remember it. Just knew it wasn't nice words.”
Mark acted like the game-winning bucket was no big deal. Last season playing for Arkansas, Mark had another game-winning shot against A&M. “I don’t know what it is, when the ball comes to me, last second, a good shot going up,” he said.
A&M’s been on the other end of these buzzer-beaters here lately. “I thought the first 100 minutes, you can say we were on a run,” Williams said, “and you can for sure say the last 100 minutes, they were on a run.”
Williams noted that in the 21 days since A&M beat Texas in the SEC opener, it wasn’t like the Horns were “necessarily running ‘new’ plays.” But they were different, considering the Horns played without rebounding warhorse Arthur Kaluma (left knee) and Chendall Weaver (hip).
A&M came in as the worst 3-point shooting team in the SEC. Terry said the Aggies who were hitting 3-pointers in the first half were “low percentage shooters.” The coaching staff was content to let them shoot those all day long, Terry said. “Our guys were following the scouting report. They were just making some shots.”
When the second half began, Johnson knew something had to change. It started with him being the elite five-star scorer the Horns recruited Johnson to be.
Mark converted a four-point play with 10:04 remaining, drawing a foul on a made 3-pointer, and cut the deficit down to eight. Texas finally got within six, but A&M’s Wade Taylor IV buried a 3-pointer just before the shot clock expired.
The Aggies pushed the lead back to 14 and that should have been it, right? They got momentarily confused and had six players on the floor for a brief moment, long enough to get whistled for a technical foul with 5:59 left.
Johnson hit the two free throws, followed that with a made 3-pointer and Texas put the hammer down.
Johnson’s wide-open 3-pointer in the left corner made it a four-point game. Mark’s baseline drive was another big shot, followed by another Johnson 3-pointer from the left wing with 46 seconds left.
On the game-winning play, Mark said Julian Larry gave him a great pass and the whole left side was wide open.
“I wasn’t that surprised when I saw it go through, because it's a left-hand layup and I’m lefthanded, so I work on those,” Mark said. “But it felt good for it to go through, win the game.”
Terry tried to play it cool, but this was a big one, especially with three of the next four on the road.
“You know, we talk about it all the time,” Terry said. “You have to play the game. You’ve gotta play the ball in this league until the horn goes off.”
