After a difficult start to SEC play for Texas, falling to Mississippi State and Tennessee, the Longhorns have won two straight. First, Texas upset Alabama on the road, 92-88. On Wednesday night, they faced a previously undefeated Vanderbilt, and the success from the victory over Alabama carried over.
“The game against Alabama gave us confidence. That happens, as you guys know, in any sport. You get a part of a big win on the road, you get a road victory, and you know, the belief inside the locker room, in each other, in themselves, it goes to a good place, and I thought that that win, that confidence really fed up preparing for this game, and we picked up where we left off. I felt we played at a very high level on offense. If we were a little bit stronger with the ball, in the second half, in terms of our turnovers, we would have had just an incredible performance against an excellent, excellent team,” Texas head coach Sean Miller said after the game, according to the post-game video shared by Jeff Howe of On Texas Football.
Vanderbilt has been controlling games this year. They were 3-0 in SEC play, with a 12-point victory over South Carolina, a six-point win over Alabama, and an 11-point victory over LSU. Further, they previously had double-digit victories over Wake Forest, SMU, Saint Mary's, and VCU. Now, they suffer their first loss of the year, by 16 points, to Texas.
It was a tight game early on, with eight lead changes and Texas leading by one point with just over five minutes left to go in the first half. They would go into halftime leading by five. While Vanderbilt kept it close, thanks to many of those turnovers that Miller spoke of, Texas pulled away late. Texas held Vanderbilt to just nine points in the final nine minutes of the game on its way to victory.
Texas is now 11-6 on the season, and 2-2 in conference play. They return to the court on Saturday with another tough test, as they host 13-4 Texas A&M.
