After trailing by 17 points in the first half, Texas men’s basketball entered the locker room with fans hoping for a classic head coach Rodney Terry comeback to push the team over the edge and beat out the Georgia Bulldogs in their showdown at the Moody Center on Saturday.

Texas had multiple breakaway plays throughout the second half and seemed to be outpacing the Bulldogs, but the comeback never flourished. There was no nail-biting march back or anxiety-ridden commercial timeouts for fans at home. With four minutes left in the second half, Texas trailed Georgia 57–74, and for many Texas fans, it seemed to be a great time to head out and beat the traffic home.

Having never led the entire game, communication seemed to be lacking between the team, with missed opportunities on the court and sloppy passes when the Longhorns were on offense.

“We didn’t get the kind of start we wanted to get off to, especially from an offensive standpoint,” Terry said. “I feel like we let that dictate a little bit of our defensive effort to start the ball game.”

Texas finished the first half 10–25 on field-goal attempts and 4–11 on three-point attempts. The team trailed Georgia in points, successful free throw attempts, rebounds, assists and turnovers throughout the game.

“As far as energy, we’ve just got to bring it more,” sophomore forward Devon Pryor said. “We can’t be having these first half laps and then decide to turn it up in the second half. We need to just start the game off strong every time.”

 In the end, the Longhorns failed to execute on the court, falling 83–67 to the unranked Bulldogs. Texas now sits at a 5–11 record in the Southeastern Conference, dropping from No. 12 to No. 13 in the conference table and leaving the team with an overall record of 16–13.  

Georgia pinned down freshman guard Tre Johnson, the SEC’s top scorer, for most of the night. Coming off a high-scoring 39-point performance against Arkansas on Feb. 26, Johnson only took seven shots in the game and no official shots in the second half.

“(Georgia) was doubling Tre the whole time,” Terry said. “They (were) running through passing lanes, making it difficult to run your offense in terms of trying to concentrate on getting him the basketball.”

Texas’ season has been filled with ups and downs. The team had a surprise win against No. 15 Kentucky, followed by a shocking loss against the bottom-ranked team in the SEC, South Carolina. Saturday was no different.

The Longhorns trailed by over 20 points for the majority of the second half, never being within 10 points of the Bulldogs. Efforts made by graduate forward Jayson Kent and junior guard Jordan Pope were valiant, but in the end, it was too little too late.

The Longhorns will prepare for their penultimate regular season game against Mississippi State on March 4. Despite the loss, Terry is looking forward to continuing the season through March.

“When you get to March, man, for the college basketball players, it doesn’t get any better than this time of year,” Terry said. “It’s almost like Christmas. … March is the most wonderful time of the year.”