Once again, the Texas Longhorns have fallen short of the NCAA National Championship game after losing to the South Carolina Gamecocks, the Horns' newest conference rival.
Despite a 10-2 start to the game, Texas fell apart as the final three quarters progressed, especially with star forward Madison Booker playing a lot of the second half on the bench. By the end of regulation, Texas lost 57-74.
With less than three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Gamecocks had built a 17-point lead, and the Longhorns looked lost on the court against the relatively newly minted perennial program.
Head coach Vic Schaefer, who led Texas to three Elite Eight appearances over the last four seasons, finally broke the barrier of the Final Four when his team defeated the No. 2-seed TCU Horned Frogs in the Elite Eight just days earlier.
However, Schaefer and his squad couldn't overcome the hump that South Carolina brought fourth – even though the Gamecocks had already defeated the Longhorns twice before the NCAA Tournament this season.
At the end of the game, Texas had shot just 40 percent from the field while allowing the Gamecocks to shoot 50.9 percent from the field and drain seven threes from deep.
Texas finished the regular season with a 35-4 record, an impressive feat no matter the circumstances, but the third loss to South Carolina in a singular season is going to sting for a long time. Moving forward, Schaefer and the Horns are going to have to figure out how to defeat the Gamecocks, no matter where they're playing.
The South Carolina Gamecocks moved on to the National Championship game, where they would face the winner of the UCLA-UConn game.