Xavier makes plays down the stretch to eliminate Texas men's basketball from NCAA tournament
As so often happens, the end of the Texas Longhorns' men's basketball season, an 86-80 loss to Xavier in the First Four of the NCAA tournament in Dayton, looked much like what came before it.
Matters started well, took a hiccup in the middle, then faltered at the end. Leading much of the way, Texas couldn't finish and Xavier caught the Longhorns, then passed them in a tight stretch run.
The Longhorns finish Rodney Terry's third season as coach with a 19-16 record to keep Terry squarely on a hot seat.
Texas superstar freshman Tre Johnson had a free-throw to tie the game 1:34 to go, but couldn't get the second half of the one-and-one to drop and Xavier held an 80-79 lead. Xavier made a pair of free throws, then Johnson, who finished with 23 points, couldn't get a basket to fall.
Down 3, Texas still had a chance with a defensive stop and forced a miss, but Dailyn Swain was all alone for a rebound and follow that gave Xavier an 84-79 lead with 20 seconds to play.
Texas led by as much as 62-52 nearing the midpoint of the second half, but eventually Xavier closed on a 16-6 run.
Up next
Xavier faces Illinois Friday in an 11-6 matchup. That will be at 7:45 p.m. Mountain/8:45 p.m. local (Central) in Milwaukee. It will be televised on CBS.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Xavier makes plays down the stretch to eliminate Texas men's basketball
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