Tramon Mark hit a running layup with 3.7 seconds left and Tre Johnson scored a career-high 30 points as Texas, which trailed by 22 in the second half, stormed back to edge rival No. 13 Texas A&M 70-69 on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Texas A&M (15-5, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) led by 18 at halftime before the Longhorns mounted a second-half onslaught behind Johnson, whittling the margin to 67-63 with 2:15 to play.
A putback layup by Andersson Garcia expanded the Aggies lead back to six before Johnson, the Longhorns’ freshman phenom, poured in a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left to pull Texas (14-6, 3-4) to within 69-68.
That set the stage for Mark, who drove the lane for a shot that bounced high off the backboard and in to complete Texas’ 7-0 run over the final 1:25.
Johnson scored 24 of his points in the second half and Mark finished with 10 points for Longhorns. Texas played without second-leading scorer Arthur Kaluma, who was ruled out just before the game with a left knee injury.
Texas A&M was led by Wade Taylor IV’s 15 points while Manny Obaseki added 13 points in the loss, the Aggies’ 11th straight against Texas in Austin.
The Aggies had more than doubled Texas’ output by late in the first half when Zhuric Phelps canned a 3-pointer to push their lead to 41-20 with 2:45 to play. The Longhorns got a 3-pointer from Kadin Shedrick and a layup from Ze’rik Onyema to cut the margin to 16 but Obaseki’s late bucket in the lane granted A&M a 43-25 advantage at the break.
Obaseki’s 12 points led all first-half scorers. Johnson led the anemic Texas attack with just six points.
A&M pushed its lead to 51-29 after Taylor’s 3-pointer with 17:07 to play. But the Longhorns responded, reeling off a 19-5 run to cull their deficit to eight, with the run capped by a four-point play by Mark with 10:04 remaining.
The Aggies again got some separation, going up 64-50 on another Taylor basket from deep with 6:43 left. Johnson shot Texas back into shouting distance with a basket, two free throws, a 3-pointer and two more from the charity stripe, trimming the margin to five with 4:30 to play.
