Jordan Pope scored 28 points, Dailyn Swain added 18 and a huge block in the waning seconds, and Texas stunned No. 13 Alabama 92-88 on Saturday night for its first Southeastern Conference win of the season. Tramon Mark also scored 18 for the Longhorns, who avoided a three-game skid to open league play. Mark's layup with 23 seconds remaining gave Texas some cushion in crunch time.
Alabama’s Labaron Philon led the team with twenty one point, but it wasn’t enough and his five turnovers didn’t help. Even Alabama coach Nate Oats admitted his opponent, coach Sean Miller of the Longhorns had his team fired up to race a ranked foe on the hardwood.
“This guy's got some pride,” Oats noted. “You know, he called his guys out post game press conferences like they were going to get turned around, and I said, we better make sure it's not against us.”
Jordan Pope closed it out by making four consecutive free throws. Pope and Swain played with four fouls apiece down the stretch. Pope finished with six of the team's 10 3-pointers, and Swain grabbed eight rebounds. The biggest play of the game came when Swain blocked Aden Holloway's drive to the basket in a three-point game in the final minute. Pope got the loose ball and was perfect from the line.
With games against Mississippi State, Oklahoma, and Tennessee in the coming days, Tide coach Oats said he needs to do some firing up of his own after what the Tide faced in Texas.
“We got to play hard in them, and we didn't,” Oats admitted “So I got to look in mirror and look at what I'm doing to not get winning effort out of these guys, because they just out toughed us, particularly in the second half.”
Texas started the second half, as Oats observed, with a 20-8 run that opened up a 13-point lead the Longhorns never relinquished. Alabama cut it to 75-74 with a little more than 5 minutes to play but couldn't get over the hump and lost for the second time this week. The Tide hits the road tomorrow to face Mississippi State. After the Bulldogs, Alabama will travel to Oklahoma.
