In a potential sign that the Texas Longhorns are peaking at the right time to secure a bye in the NCAA Tournament, head coach Sean Miller’s team outscored the Missouri Tigers by 15 points in the second half of Saturday’s 85-68 road win at Mizzou Arena.
Junior wing Dailyn Swain led the way for the Longhorns by notching 18 of his game-high 25 points after halftime in another impressive performance for the Ohio product, going 6-of-7 shooting in the second half and hitting all four of his free throws. Two of those baskets came on three-pointers off the bounce in late-clock situations to help ensure that the Tigers couldn’t mount a late comeback.
Sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis also turned in an efficient performance, scoring 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor and 7-of-8 shooting from the line, recording a double-double with 10 rebounds, five off the offensive glass.
And while senior guard Jordan Pope added 15 points despite battling foul trouble, some of the most important contributions for Texas came off the bench.
Junior guard Simeon Wilcher overcame consecutive turnovers and a questionable technical foul ruled on review to score nine points by making both field-goal attempts and all four of his free throws in addition to notching a team-high four assists.
Filling in for injured graduate forward Lassina Traore, sophomore forward Nic Codie had the most impactful conference performance of his young career, scoring nine points on 4-of-5 shooting with six rebounds, three offensive, and a block in 15 minutes.
Missouri still had a four-point edge in bench points, but the margin wasn’t as large as it has been at times for Texas this season and the Longhorns were able to limit Tigers star forward Mark Mitchell to 16 points and one assist.
On the glass and around the basket, Texas secured key advantages, out-rebounding Missouri 36-26 and notching a 40-28 edge in points in the paint. That helped make up for 22 fouls turning into 38 free throws for the Tigers in a game that featured some bad fouls by the Longhorns against jump shooters, but they also played with enough composure and verticality to avoid the fouling issues that did exist from impacting the outcome.
That included some mental toughness to survive a choppy portion of the second half in which multiple long reviews disrupted the game, a sign of growth within the current surge in which the Horns have taken advantage of winnable games.
With LSU coming to the Moody Center on Tuesday with a 2-10 conference record, that stretch continues with Texas heavily favored to secure a five-game winning streak. Tip is at 8 p.m. Central on SEC Network.