Dailyn Swain scored 21 points and got 10 rebounds and Jordan Pope added 18 points that included a huge basket in the final seconds as Texas outlasted hapless LSU 88-85 on Tuesday in a Southeastern Conference clash in Austin, Texas.
Texas (17-9, 8-5 SEC) led by 17 points late in the first half and by 16 four minutes after halftime before the Tigers clawed their way back in the game, closing to 65-61 on Pablo Tamba’s steal and dunk with 10:07 to play.
After the Longhorns built their lead back to 10 points with 6:38 left LSU rallied again, with two free throws by Jalen Reece culling the deficit to 85-82 at the 1:39 mark. Pope then hit a jumper with 33.6 seconds to play to boost the margin to 87-82 and Texas was able to hold on from there.
Tramon Mark added 18 points and Matas Vokietaitis racked up a 17-point, 10-rebound double double for Texas, which has won a season-high five straight games and six of its past seven.
LSU’s Max Mackinnon led all scorers with 27 points. Marquel Sutton added 21 points, Michael Nwoko had 15 and Reece finished with 14 points as the Tigers (14-12, 2-11) have dropped four in a row and 11 of its past 13 outings.
The Tigers went toe to toe with Texas over the first nine and half minutes, leading by as many as four points early on before the Longhorns put things together.
Texas stretched its advantage to 10 points for the first time on Vokietaitis’ dunk with 3:43 to play until halftime and kept its collective foot on the accelerator, with Mark canning back to back 3-pointers and then Camden Heide hitting another shot from beyond the arc as the Longhorns pushed the lead to 17 points.
Texas settled for a 48-33 advantage at the break after outshooting the Tigers 63% to 40.6% from the floor and going 6 for 9 from beyond the arc over the opening 20 minutes of play.
Pope and Swain led Texas with 11 points each in the first half while Mark had 10. LSU was paced by Sutton’s 12 points before halftime.
The Longhorns led 57-41 with 16:16 to play before LSU found its second wind, producing a 14-2 run over the ensuing three minutes with Sutton’s 3-pointer and then turn-around jumper making it 59-55.
