The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
14-7
Ole Miss
11-10
Men's Basketball defeats Ole Miss in Big 12/SEC Challenge, 85-72
01.27.2018 | Men's Basketball
Freshman forward Mohamed Bamba recorded a career-high 25 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks in the win.
AUSTIN, Texas –– Freshman forward Mohamed Bamba posted a career-high 25 points to go along with 15 rebounds and 4 blocks to lead Texas Men's Basketball past Ole Miss 85-72 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday afternoon at the Frank Erwin Center. Bamba finished 6-of-8 from the field and hit a career-best 12-of-13 free throws while earning his 10th double-double of the season, including his fourth in the last five contests.
Junior forward Dylan Osetkowski added 17 points and seven rebounds, while junior guard Kerwin Roach II contributed 16 points and dished out a team-high five assists in 31 minutes. Freshman guard Jase Febres rounded out the double-digit scoring for the Longhorns with 12 points, hitting 4-of-8 from the three-point line.
Texas shot 44.4 percent (28-of-63) from the field and knocked down 10 3-pointers. The Longhorns led by as many 18 in the second half.
UT grabbed an early 15-10 lead after a steal and lay-in from freshman forward Jericho Sims with 14:01 to play in the first half. The Rebels knocked down six straight field goals to pull ahead 21-18 at the 10:37 mark, but UT responded with an 11-4 spurt to regain a four-point (29-25) advantage with 7:13 to play.
Four points from Osetkowski fueled a 9-0 Longhorn run, as Texas extended the lead to double-digits (38-28) with 5:15 to go in the opening half. A Bamba 3-pointer at the 1:41 mark put the Longhorns ahead by 11 (43-32) to match the largest lead of the half for UT. Texas headed to the break with a 45-36 lead.
Osetkowski paced the Longhorns in the first half with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting and six rebounds. Roach II added 10 points and three assists in 18 minutes. UT shot 48 percent (16-of-33) from the field in the opening 20 minutes.
The Longhorns led 53-41 after six straight points with 16:36 remaining. Texas held Ole Miss to just one field goal over six-and-a-half minutes, as the Longhorns built an 18-point (68-50) advantage with 9:26 to play.
A Roach II jumper at the 5:19 mark put Texas ahead, 77-61. A pair of Ole Miss free throws trimmed the advantage to 13 (79-66), but Febres answered with his fourth 3-pointer of the contest to put Texas ahead 82-66 with 2:32 to play in regulation.
UT never let the lead fall below 13 points over the final 10 minutes as the Longhorns earned an 85-72 win. Deandre Burnett paced Ole Miss with 21 points.
The Longhorns will travel to Lubbock, Texas to face No. 14/14 Texas Tech on Wednesday, Jan. 31 at the United Supermarkets Arena. Tip is set for 8 p.m. Central, and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
Texas Basketball Postgame Notes
Texas 85, Ole Miss 72
Big 12/SEC Challenge
January 27, 2018
Frank Erwin Center (Austin, Texas)
Attendance: 10,913
Team Notes
- Texas improved to 3-2 in its five appearances in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. The Longhorns are 3-0 in Big 12/SEC Challenge home games.
- The Longhorns improved to 9-6 all-time against Ole Miss. This marked the first meeting between the two schools, since a 67-65 Texas win in Austin on Dec. 6, 1975.
- UT improved to 497-121 all-time in games at the Erwin Center. Texas improved to 225-38 at the Erwin Center in the last 16 seasons (dating to the start of the 2002-03 season). UT is 34-12 at home during the Shaka Smart era (10-2 this season).
- Texas posted a 13-to-7 assist-to-turnover ratio on the afternoon.
- Posted a career high in scoring (25 points) for the second straight contest – previous high was 24 on Monday (Jan. 22) vs. Iowa State
- Set a career high in free throws made (12-13) – previous high was 4 (twice)
- His 15 rebounds were one shy of his career high (16 at Iowa State on Jan. 1)
- Recorded his 10th double-double (25 points, 15 rebounds) of the year (20 games). Has recorded a double-double in four of his last five and seven of his last 10 contests.
- Topped the 20-point mark for the second straight game and third time this season
- Reached double figures in scoring for the 15th time this season
- Reached double figures in rebounds for the 14th time this season.
- Added 4 blocked shots in 28 minutes and has registered at least 4 blocks in 17 of his first 20 games and at least 2 blocks in all 20 contests
- Reached double figures in scoring (12 points) for the third time this season (18 games)
- Tied his career high in three-pointers made (4-8). Also hit 4 threes at Baylor (Jan. 6).
- His 29 minutes played were one shy of his career high (30 vs. TCU on Jan. 11)
- Reached double figures in scoring (17 points) for the 17th time this season (21 games)
- Reached double figures in scoring for the 12th time this season (19 games) and 38th time in his career (84 games)
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS
Head Coach Shaka Smart
On being the hungrier team: I thought the guys did a good job of that. Mississippi came in with a level of physicality and aggressiveness, especially against Mo [Bamba], and we had to stand up to that. I heard Dylan mention earlier 'less dribble and more passing,' and that's one of the ways to stand up to another team. Our guys did a good job of being efficient and executing on offense.
On using full court press more during the second half: [Full court press] is a way to be aggressive. I didn't think that we had great aggressiveness at times during the first half, so we went to the press. We forced a few turnovers, but more importantly we were able to disrupt some of their offensive flow of what they try to do. You saw in the second half that Ole Miss can really get going when they get flowing on offense and start making shots.
On the importance of getting on a winning streak: We talked a lot about that. Our guys have done a nice job of responding when we've had a tough game. That's a big point of emphasis for us, culturally. At the same time, when you win you don't want to be any less motivated than you were after a loss. We talked quite a bit about that over the last couple of days. I thought our guys approached practice very well. In fact, our guys met this morning on their own. I don't know what was said but they came down to the court for shoot-around this morning with a good aggressiveness about them.
Freshman forward Mohamed Bamba
On leaving the game in the first half: I'm not really sure what my injury really was. I felt discomfort and went in the back, ran on it for a little bit and then went back out there.
On the importance of getting the win: It was very important to get this win today. Two things that we wanted to establish and get out in the open was first, to become a more hungry team. Coach has been drilling into us that we need to be more hungry. Ole Miss came in here and felt good about their two home wins. I think that their coach mentioned it would've been a breakthrough game, after all it was the Big 12-SEC challenge. Another thing we wanted to establish was to get on a winning streak. Ole Miss is a very talented team and we didn't see a reason why we couldn't keep winning to get our streak.
On reflecting on his improvements: I think the biggest thing is that the game is slowing down for me. The coaches previously said that they weren't really expecting me to play as well early on, but that I needed to get a feel for the game. College is night and day different than high school. As soon as the game started slowing down for me, my teammates put me in the best position to score.
Junior guard Kerwin Roach II
On the overall game: We came out here wanting to win. We were just more hungry. Coming into the game, we were all in different mindsets. We left it on the court today.
On what the team wanted to accomplish today: The first thing we wanted to accomplish today was to get this win. The second was to get our mind right. We want to stay aggressive.
On taking a leadership role: I try to relay my experiences to Mo and everybody else, especially the freshmen. I just want to be a leader since I am one of the oldest people on the team. I've been through a lot and can relate to all the players and give credit to them too for what they've been through.
Junior forward Dylan Osetkowski
On his new hair style: I've been growing out my hair for some time and just wanted to change it up. I knew whether I played good or played bad, it would've been the hair, but thankfully I played good.
On today's overall offense: We had everyone playing the ball and staying aggressive. Coach has been adamant on more passing and less dribbling, which is two of our four cores offensively. We did a great job at playing aggressive and playing together today.
OLE MISS
Head Coach Andy Kennedy
On reasons for the second-half struggles and the loss: Things I just told our team. If you would have told me we were going to get 36 shots in the paint, and we're going to battle to somewhat even on the glass, we're going shoot 83 percent from the free throw line, I'm going to say, "Hey man we're going to be in that game." The problem is we missed 11 layups. I know they're not open-gym layups, but we play in a big boy league too and you have to finish. And we did not finish when the game was still in play early second half. I think we had it down to six or eight. I think we had one possession where we missed three [layups]. We didn't finish the plays that you have to in order to beat a team the quality of Texas on the road.
On struggles on the road: I just told our team, I didn't like our approach. It's almost as if we play far too casual on the road. It has happened to us in our last two SEC outings. We go to Texas A&M and have a shot at the buzzer to win it and it doesn't go. We go to Arkansas and it was a game similar to this. We made a few more shots, but the game was too free and easy. And maybe at home you can get away with some of that stuff, but on the road you definitely cannot. We have got to be a blue-collar team, and I didn't think we were blue collar enough tonight.
