Texas Longhorns Hold Off BYU to Advance to Second Round of March Madness

PORTLAND -- The Texas Longhorns are moving on.

Matas Vokietaitis scored a team-high 23 points and had 16 rebounds as No. 11 Texas held off No. 6 BYU in a 79-71 win in Portland on Thursday.

AJ Dybantsa had 35 points and 10 rebounds for BYU.

Texas Survives BYU's Late Comeback

Texas Longhorns guard Tramon Mark (12) celebrates in the second half against the BYU Cougars during a first round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Moda Center. | Craig Strobeck-Imagn Images

Texas led by as many as 17 in the second half before BYU came storming back to cut the lead to four late. Vokietaitis went 3 of 11 from the foul line, with multiple misses in the final few minutes to keep the Cougars in the game.

But Tramon Mark hit a few game-clinching free throws to seal the win. He finished with 19 points, four rebounds and a career-high four blocks.

BYU led for just 22 seconds of game time.

The Longhorns got off to a hot start from deep, as Mark, Pope and Heide each hit a triple. Heide added some fireworks with a powerful put-back dunk in the opening minute, as Texas

But led by Dybantsa, BYU went stride for stride with the Longhorns early, getting multiple buckets in the paint.

After Swain converted an and-1 layup, BYU answered back with another midrange jumper from Dybantsa and two more points in the paint from Wright to give the Cougars their first lead of 21-20 at the 12:02 mark.

Texas bounced back though, putting together an 8-0 run that was sparked by a corner triple from Pope. The Longhorns were up 30-23, their largest lead of the game at that point, but BYU continued to keep things close behind Dybantsa.

Aside from a block in the lane that Mark got on the BYU star, the Longhorns had no answer for Dybantsa, who kept beating whatever defense Texas threw at him.

The offensive shootout continued though, as Texas started to do some increased damage in the paint. Pope got free for a layup while Vokietaitis had a driving dunk and a tip-in before battling for a hard-earned bucket a few plays later after getting two offensive rebounds.

The closing seconds of the half featured some more highlights. After a timeout, Davis Jr. hit a corner 3-pointer for BYU before Mark answered with a buzzer-beating triple off the dribble to give Texas a 46-37 lead at halftime.

Vokietaitis had 15 points and 11 rebounds headed into the locker room. He continued his big night with an alley-oop dunk to start the second half, giving Texas an 11-point lead, but the Cougars got hot behind a very BYU-friendly crowd and cut the lead to four at 48-44.

Texas had every reason to collapse after the momentum swing, but the Longhorns continued find some major success in the paint. After Mark hit a triple, Texas got layups from Pope, Swain and Vokietaitis before Swain hit a corner triple.

The Longhorns built a 17-point lead at 68-51 with 11:08 to play but BYU was hardly dead yet.

Dybantsa put together a personal 8-0 run to cut the lead to single digits at 68-59 at the 8:02 mark, reaching 30 points in the process.

Texas' offense remained cold as BYU cut the lead to four at 72-68 after a layup from Wright, but Pope hit the biggest shot of the game with a fallaway corner triple at the end of the shot clock to put the Longhorns up seven with 1:21 to play.