Most of Wednesday night looked like Texas was trapped in the Hoddy Toddy version of the Hub City.

Chris Beard and his lieutenants Mark Adams and Bob Donewald were all over the sideline while their players were all over the Longhorns. Was that a foul? Where’s the whistle? Nah, that’s just tremendous defense.

Just another frustrating night against Texas Tech. Check that, Ole Miss.

Beard’s address has changed, but his style sure hasn’t. The 23rd-ranked Rebels forced 11 turnovers in the second half, made just enough shots and held their breath as Tre Johnson missed a game-tying 3-pointer in the final seconds for a 72-69 win.

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“That’s our guy right there,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said. “You’re going to go down swinging with your gun. That’s a great look, and we’ll take that all day every day.”

It was a great look. Texas played with great effort. The final shot just didn’t go down. The Horns (14-7) fell to 3-5 in SEC play and now head into February looking at an uphill climb to the NCAA Tournament.

Next comes a weekend road trip to LSU with two games against Arkansas, a home date with Kentucky and more teams in the lower half of the standings on the docket.

“Give or take the last six or seven games, we’ve been playing pretty good basketball,” Terry said. “I thought our execution down the stretch was really good. Everything we called, I thought our guys did a great job. We were attacking downhill, giving ourselves a chance.

“I really applaud our effort,” Terry added, showing unshakeable belief in his troops. “I thought our guys played really hard. I thought they played to win. I thought they shared the basketball. We did a lot of positive things in a hostile environment.”

Sure, this had to be an odd night for both Beard and Terry given their histories. Beard was the head coach at Texas Tech who came to Texas and convinced Terry to give up a head coaching job to be his assistant.

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Texas officials had to fire Beard early in his second season after a domestic dispute with his fiancée and Terry took over. Terry admitted to ESPN they are still close friends, and the two coaches shared a hug just before tipoff.

Beard, now in his second season in Oxford, has a team that's cruising toward a possible No. 5 seed in the NCAAs. 

The Horns cleared the starting gate with no problems, using a pair of 9-0 runs to build up a 32-19 lead. But like Beard’s teams have always done, they put the clamps on and climbed back into it. It was a four-point game by halftime, and the Rebels were actually up by five with 5:02 left.

Johnson had a game-high 22 points, and the Horns were glad to welcome back Arthur Kaluma. He’s missed a few games with a knee problem but got 12 points and seven rebounds.

Texas needs more production on the perimeter. The Horns were 5-for-22 from 3-point range as Johnson went 2-for-8 and Julian Pope was 2-for-7.

Ole Miss got 19 points from Sean Pedulla, which included two on a step-through move from the elbow with 1:02 left that gave the Rebels a 70-68 lead. Jaemyn Brakefield had 18 points and Dre Davis pumped in 17 more.

For his part, Beard played it straight afterward. He didn’t talk about Texas and wasn’t asked about facing his old team by Ole Miss reporters, either. The Rebels (16-5) are now 5-3 in league play.

“Man, our team really needed a win tonight. You know, Captain Obvious,” said Beard, who snapped a three-game losing streak.

“Different ways to win a basketball game,” Beard said. “I think from our perspective, we got to the free throw line, made more free throws than our opponents shot. Thought we were the most aggressive team for segments of the game against a well-coached team. And obviously we took care of the ball.”

He later called Texas “our opponent.”

The first time seeing your ex is always the toughest. Beard and the Rebels will see the Longhorns in Austin next season, and who knows how many more times after that.