Immature Longhorns Lose to Georgia in Big 12-SEC Challenge

Texas Basketball returned to their immature ways Saturday afternoon against the Georgia Bulldogs.

The Longhorns basketball team lost a heart-breaker 59-57 to the Georgia Bulldogs in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. Texas still has not won a true road game this season after giving this game away in Athens, Ga.

Despite a terrible second half performance, Texas still had a chance to win, or at least extend to overtime. On the last two plays of the game, Georgia had a basket waved off due to a shot clock violation. Then, Longhorns freshman Jarrett Allen missed a turnaround hook shot at the buzzer.

In the last play, Allen received a pass in the paint, turned against his defender, and launched a perfect hook shot. It just rimmed out, stunning the Longhorns bench and head coach Shaka Smart.

No Heroics for Andrew Jones Against Georgia Bulldogs

Earlier this week in nearly the same situation, freshman guard Andrew Jones launched a miracle three-pointer to beat the Oklahoma Sooners by one point.

Against Georgia, though, Texas did not look for a three-pointer and Jones was closely guarded. Instead, sophomore guard Kerwin Roach tried to penetrate to the goal. But, he was cut off, so he sent the ball to Allen for the shot that nearly sent the game to overtime.

In reality, the game was lost at the beginning of the second half.

Texas led 32-23 at halftime after Andrew Jones guided the Horns to a strong finish to the half. But, head coach Shaka Smart curiously did not put Jones in the starting lineup for the second half. As a result, Texas completely fell apart offensively, turning the ball over and only scoring two points in the first six minutes of the half.

Jones was not in the starting lineup to begin the game, either, and Texas struggled to find offense. This has defined Texas’ season throughout 2017 – very slow starts at the beginning of each half.

Earlier this year, sophomore guard Tevin Mack steadied the Longhorns until he was suspended indefinitely. Now, Andrew Jones has become that guy. So, he should be on the court to start each half. The team just does not function well when he’s on the bench.

On Saturday, this certainly affected Texas’ big men. Shaq Cleare only scored eight points before fouling out. Meanwhile, Allen’s missed shot at the buzzer highlighted one of the poorest games of his freshman season. Allen finished with only four points and five rebounds. He picked up three fouls in the first half and started the second half on the bench.

Allen also missed the front-end of a critical one-and-one free throw situation in the second half. This was part of the Texas Longhorns only going 7-13 from the free throw line, compared to 17-22 for Georgia.

Texas Basketball Simply Not Ready To Be Consistent

Despite the down night for Jarrett Allen, the game was winnable thanks to Georgia not doing anything special in the first 30 minutes of the game. The Bulldogs, who only scored 59 points in the game, did not make a three-pointer until halfway through the second half.

Then, Georgia took their largest lead of the game at seven points. Texas fought back to get within one possession, which set up Allen for a potential game-tying shot. But, unlike Monday night against Oklahoma, the Longhorns’ shot did not fall.

Now, the Longhorns return to Big 12 play having to recover from another close road loss. This felt just like the non-conference loss against Michigan in December. In that road loss, Texas also failed to execute down the stretch and lost on the last play of the game.

For every exhilarating win against Oklahoma, there is going to be a frustrating loss where Texas only scores 57 points. Adding to that frustration is the Georgia Bulldogs just lost by 20 points on their home court against Alabama. Oh, by the way, Texas beat that same Alabama team back in December.

Next: Did Texas Basketball Just End Postseason Chances?

Now we know whether Texas was capable of sustaining momentum after the big win over Oklahoma. The answer is no. Only scoring 57 points after totaling 84 against OU shows this young team still has a lot of growing up to do.