Texas basketball gave the No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers and former UT head coach Rick Barnes all they could handle in the first-ever SEC matchup between these two foes on Saturday evening at the Moody Center.
Tre Johnson breaks through for over two-dozen points in Texas basketball's close loss to No. 1 Tennessee
Despite having a two-possession lead with around 10 minutes remaining in the second half, the Longhorns were unable to secure its first SEC victory against the Vols on Jan. 11. Star Tennessee guard Zakai Ziegler and reserve guard Darlinstone Dubar led the Vols comeback effort down the stretch in the second half to get the 74-70 win over Texas.
The loss drops the Longhorns to 11-5 (0-3 SEC) this season. Texas has shown progress over the past couple of games, in close losses to the No. 2 Auburn Tigers (Jan. 7) and Tennessee this weekend. But head coach Rodney Terry and the Longhorns still have a ways to go to be more competitive in the SEC standings over the coming weeks.
Here are three takeaways from the Longhorns four-point loss to Tennessee at the Moody Center on Jan. 11.
Tre Johnson lights up the Tennessee defense
Freshman guard Tre Johnson found his shooting stroke in SEC play against the best defense in the conference against the Vols yesterday. Johnson sparked the Texas scoring efforts in the first half.
He was the Longhorns' only player to score in double figures in the game's first 20 minutes, scoring a dozen points on an efficient 5-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Johnson stayed hot in the second half, scoring a team-high 14 points in 17 minutes on the floor. Terry elected to give Johnson a rest after he was lighting it up from the field in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Terry explained his thought process after Johnson's field goal attempts were limited in the game's final 10 minutes.
"Tre had his fair share of shots, he shot 17 times and we don't go into games saying that we have to get a guy 20 shots. We pride ourselves on having a number of different guys who can score and moving the ball. There are times that he has to sit down and get a little rest so he can come back and finish the game and we ask Tre to paly on both ends of the floor, not just one."Rodney Terry on Tre Johnson
Given the fact that the Vols had a net rating of +10 in the five minutes down the stretch in the second half when Johnson was on the bench and then didn't get any shots off from the field, it made a big impact on the game that he was a non-factor for that stretch for the Longhorns.