3 Texas Longhorns Who Stood Out in Tight Win vs. Ole Miss

The Texas Longhorns recovered after blowing a big lead to put away the Ole Miss Rebels.

Texas Longhorns guard Jordan Pope drives the ball against Mississippi Rebels guard Ilias Kamardine during the first half at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

It wasn't pretty, but the Texas Longhorns managed to come away with a 79-68 win over the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday at the Moody Center for their third straight SEC victory.

In what marked Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard's return to Austin, the Longhorns closed the game on a 14-0 run after blowing an 18-point first-half lead.

Texas star Dailyn Swain was held in check, forcing other Longhorns to step up when the team needed it most. Here are three players that stood out:

Matas Vokietaitis

Texas Longhorns center Matas Vokietaitis dunks the ball during the first half against the Mississippi Rebels at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

Texas center Matas Vokietaitis finished with a game-high 27 points on 9 of 11 shooting while adding seven rebounds and going 9 of 12 from the foul line.

Vokietaitis came up just short of a new career-high point total and was the clear best player on the floor Saturday, resulting in some major praise from Texas head coach Sean Miller.

"I thought it was the smartest game he's played," Miller said. "There were no silly fouls. He played 32 minutes. We asked him to be ready to play more minutes. He did, and he was incredibly dominant and efficient on offense. ... This was his day. The reason we beat Ole Miss, he was the difference in the game on our end."

Tramon Mark

Texas Longhorns guard Tramon Mark and Texas Longhorns guard Dailyn Swain react to a basket during the last few seconds of the game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

Mark had two rare quiet games in the loss to Auburn and the win over Oklahoma, scoring just eight total points, but has bounced back with two straight productive performances since.

He finished with 19 points, five rebounds and four assists against Ole Miss in 35 minutes of action while shooting 8 of 14 from the field. Mark found ample success in the midrange, converting on multiple jumpers throughout the game.

Mark has reached double figures in 9 of 11 SEC games this season and is up to 13.1 points per contest this year.

"As a team, I feel like we did a very good job of that, especially those last eight minutes, I would say we had to step up and dig down. We are already wasted a lead, but we just stepped up and dig down, and we were able to get the job done.

Jordan Pope

Texas Longhorns guard Jordan Pope takes a jump shot against Mississippi Rebels guard Eduardo Klafke during the first half at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

After being called out a bit by Sean Miller after the win over South Carolina in which he scored just three points, Pope came up big down the stretch for Texas against Ole Miss.

He finished with 13 points, including eight in the second half, and was a key reason that the Longhorns were able to survive late after Ole Miss stormed back to take the lead.

With Texas trailing 68-65 with 2:43 left, Pope converted on a critical four-point play that gave the Longhorns the lead. This sparked the decisive 14-0 run, as Ole Miss didn't score the remainder of the game.

Texas guard Simeon Wilcher prasied Pope for bouncing back while speaking to the media after the game.

“I feel like the telltale of a man is how he responds during adversity," Wilcher said. "... You struggle sometimes. And he just buckled down and did what he does, just being Jordan."