Texas Men’s Basketball One-Ups Tennessee 52-51

AUSTIN, Texas — The Big 12/SEC challenge game was tied 51-51 with six seconds left when Tennessee fouled #0 Timmy Allen after a rebound sending him to the free-throw line for two shots. He missed the first shot then coach Beard called a timeout. As Allen’s shot fell through the net on his second free throw putting the score at 52-51, a sold out Frank Erwin Center erupted. Tennessee called a timeout to set up a play to have Josiah-Jordan James shoot a three-pointer. James missed and 6’6” senior forward Christian Bishop grabbed the rebound for Texas at the buzzer.  Texas Wins!

The game marked the return of coach Rick Barnes to Texas and the Frank Erwin Center where he coached from 1998-2015 and is the winningest coach in Texas basketball history. Coach Beard honored coach Barnes at halftime and also during a fireside chat session that Beard shared with Texas Longhorns fans on social media. Beard’s respect for coach Barnes is evident as is his respect for the University of Texas, former and current players, students and fans. 

Texas’ defense keeps proving why they lead the nation in scoring defenses by holding Tennessee to 51 points. Tennessee hit 19 of 53 field goals (36%) and 5 of 18 3-pointers (28%), plus they had 32 rebounds off Texas, 15 offensive rebounds to Texas’ four.

Coach Barnes commented during the postgame conference that he could not understand why his players were turning down shots. He said, “I actually at the end of the game said, the next guy that turns down a shot is coming out of the game.” 

Texas’ defense is intimidating and relentless with the pressure that caused Tennessee to have three shot clock violations.

In the semi low scoring game, the first half there were 13 shots made by Texas and in the second half 12 shots made. All 10 players for Texas played with eight scoring, senior guard #3 Courtney Ramey scored a team high 18 points. Timmy Allen scored nine points, that last one a free throw to win the game.

Texas is now 16-5 overall and 5-3 in Big 12 Conference as they enter into their final 10 games before March Madness, seven of those games against Top 25 ranked teams (No. 4 Baylor, No. 5 Kansas, No. 13 Texas Tech, No. 23 Iowa State.

The Frank Erwin Center was sold out with 16,540 in attendance. The final home game at the Frank Erwin Center will be on Monday Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. against No. 4 Baylor. Get Tickets Here

Meet the Texas Men's Basketball players