Head coach Rodney Terry and Texas basketball (11-3, 0-1 SEC) faltered in the second half of the SEC opener in College Station on Saturday night behind a 14-2 run from the No. 13 Texas A&M Aggies (12-2, 1-0 SEC) coming out of the locker room at halftime to take command of this game.
Texas basketball and Rodney Terry handled by No. 13 Texas A&M in SEC opener
Texas led the game for most of the first half and was tied with the Aggies going into halftime 37-37. But the Longhorns had no answer for the Aggies' low-paint scoring offense and zone defense in the second half.
This was a disappointing start to Texas's first-ever official SEC conference game against rival Texas A&M. Texas has the talent and offensive scorers to hang with a team as good as Texas A&M. But the offensive identity and cohesion from the core part of the rotation just hasn't been there for a full 40 minutes for the Longhorns in Quad 1 games.
In Texas's three Quad 1 games this season, the Longhorns are 0-3 with an average margin of defeat in double digits.
Texas A&M really pulled away in this game, beating the Longhorns by 20 points in the second half to hand Texas the 80-60 defeat in the SEC opener at Reed Arena on Saturday night.
Here are three takeaways from the Longhorns' loss to the Aggies in the SEC opener in College Station on Jan. 4.
Texas's offense struggles in the second half
The aforementioned struggles the Longhorns faced in the second half is a recurring issue of Texas not being able to hang for a full 40 minutes with Quad 1 opponents. Texas has now had field-goal droughts of at least four minutes at least once in every single game against Quad 1 teams in three contests.
Where this game got away from the Longhorns was early in the second half when Texas went nearly seven minutes with only one made field goal. Texas's shooting numbers were bad in the second half. The Longhorns shot under 30 percent from the field and barely hovered around 10 percent shooting from beyond the arc in the game's final 20 minutes.
Once Texas A&M grabbed the momentum early in the second half, the score never got closer than two possessions in favor of the Aggies.
Texas was turning the ball over too much, taking too long to get the offense set up, and couldn't get their top scorers open looks around the perimeter with the basketball.