Before tip-off, the tense environment from the Moody Center crowd — mostly from students — edged on Texas A&M men’s basketball from warmups until the final whistle.

The Aggies took on the Longhorns for the second of the pairs’ scheduled matchups, this time in Austin on Saturday, Jan. 25. Despite a first-half dominance — propelled by 50% shooting from three range — A&M fell victim to a 22-point second-half rally, losing 70-69 as the victims of the largest comeback by Texas this season. 

“At times, in the second half, we weren’t accountable for what we have to do,” coach Buzz Williams said. “We weren’t able to get consecutive stops. We gave them 14 points from the free throw line. So we’ll grow from it. We’ll learn from it. We’ve been on the other end of it, and so that’s just part of what this is.”

The first matchup took place in the Maroon and Whites’ turf where they buried the ‘Horns by 20 points behind an excellent second-half performance.

A dominating defensive presence that forced Texas into a 1-of-7 start in FG, combined with sloppy ball handling plagued A&M, led to a slow 4-2 lead after five minutes of play. 

Blocks were flying in left and right as a battle for the paint ensued between the pair, ultimately with the Aggies taking advantage of their rebounding skills to take a four-point lead heading into the last 10 minutes of the half.

“Statistically speaking, that’s probably the worst thing we do offensively,” Williams said. “We’ve had more shots blocked while we’re on offense than nearly every power four team in the country.”

Just as the 3-point line looked lonely, graduate guard Wade Taylor IV and junior G Jordan Pope went back-and-forth trading made shots until Taylor silenced the Moody crowd with an extra dagger prompting Texas coach Rodney Terry to take a timeout, now trailing by 10. 

Another drained three by senior G Jace Carter and senior forward Andersson Garcia kept the foot on the gas pedal for the often stagnant Aggie offense, which improved the growing lead to 31-18. 

A last-second offensive push from graduate F Kadin Shedrick with a made 3-point jumper breathed life back into Texas, as they looked to limit the lead to 18 points. 

Between a domineering paint presence and excellent long-ball shooting, the Longhorn defense struggled to stop the punishment, finishing the half 43-25 A&M. Rebounding and 3-point percentage became the deciding factor as A&M led 24 to Texas’ 11 boards, as well out-shooting the Burnt Orange with 8-of-15 from behind the arc. 

The trend of 3-pointers continued for the Aggie offense in the second half, with graduate G Hayden Heffner making his first of the game. Taylor responds to his teammates play by picking the ball off a Texas player in-route to a fast break 3-pointer, which almost seemed devious with the look back at the trailing defenders.

Following a media timeout, Longhorn fans in Moody seemed to completely ignore the 18-point disparity as they swayed to ‘Mo Bamba’ and Soujia Boy’s ‘Turn my Swag On’.The tactic seemingly worked for Texas, as it chipped away at the A&M lead behind a handful of free throws and tough FGs in the paint, good for a 7-0 run. 

More free throws — from some questionable calls if you ask Aggie fans— and a 4-point try weighed down on the Maroon and White as they struggled to maintain their now eight point lead. 

“The thing that’s hurting our I think, entering today, I think our offense was 38th in the country,” Williams said. “And if you were to find two things that hurt us the most is effective field goal percentage, [which] we probably solved some of that today. Our free throw percentage needs to increase. Today, we shot eight and we made 38%, that’s a number that drags us down.”

A dagger from long-range by Taylor helped relieve some pressure before heading into a media timeout with eight minutes left. 

With the atmosphere of a dog-fight, Taylor continued to show the crowd why is an NBA prospect with another clutch and highly contested 3-point make. 

Longhorns’ freshman G Tre Johnson responded to the experienced guard’s ferocious shooting nature with his own well-guarded three, further riling up the Texas crowd and players on his way to 22 points. 

With the game down to the wire with less than three minutes to go, Johnson found himself wide-open for the corner-three to put the game within a possession at 67-63. After a back-and-forth 2-point trade between the teams, Johnson found himself in the right position again to make it a one-point game with only 22 seconds left. 

With three seconds to-go, ‘Horns graduate G Mark Tramon drove through the defense for the maroon heart-breaking finish, completing the 22-point comeback. 

A&M will head back home to Reed Arena to face off against Oklahoma on Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. on SECN.