4 takeaways from Texas's last-second win vs. Texas A&M

Texas overcomes the absences of Arthur Kaluma and Chendall Weaver

Due to a couple of key injuries for the Longhorns in the core part of the rotation and the starting five, senior forward Jayson Kent made his first start of the season against A&M. Texas had to rely more on key reserve players to step up in this big matchup against a top-15 opponent, including the aforementioned Kent and senior guard Julian Larry.

Senior forward Arthur Kaluma was listed on the pre-game SEC injury report as a "game-time decision". He didn't warm up for the Longhorns and was seen in sweatpants on the sideline bench after the game's tip-off for the first half.

Without having these important sources of secondary scoring, the Longhorns struggled to keep pace with a surprising solid outside shooting effort from the Aggies in this game. Texas only scored 25 points in the game's first 20 minutes, the second-fewest first-half points for the Longhorns in any home game at the Moody Center this regular season.

Led by freshman guard Tre Johnson heating up in the second half, the Longhorns did close the gap a bit on the Aggies in the game's final 15 minutes. After starting the first half with just six points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field, Johnson found his way to the free-throw line often in the second half, leading to an impressive nine points in the first minutes of the second half.

Johnson continued to stay hot throughout the second half, reaching 20 points scored in the game's final 20 minutes alone.

This game really showed how important both Kaluma and Weaver are for the Longhorns' rotation, especially on the glass and the offensive end of the floor. That said, it also shows the resilience of the Longhorns to be able to overcome a 20+ point second-half deficit without two of its key players to win a big Quad 1 game in the SEC.