Texas Longhorns Stun Gonzaga With Major March Madness Upset

The Texas Longhorns are headed to the Sweet 16.

Jordan Pope and Matas Vokietaitis both scored 17 points as Texas upset No. 3 seed Gonzaga 74-68 in the Round of 32 in Portland on Saturday. With the Longhorns up three, Camden Heide hit a corner triple with 14.7 seconds to seal the win for Texas, his only points of the game.

The Longhorns have now won three NCAA Tournament games in the first year under Sean Miller.

Texas Offense Shines vs. Gonzaga

Texas Longhorns guard Jordan Pope (0) reacts after a basket in the second half against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during a second round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Moda Center. | Craig Strobeck-Imagn Images

Texas finished with 20 assists and just five turnovers while shooting 52 percent from the floor.

Dailyn Swain had 11 points, six rebounds and six assists while Nic Codie (12 points, four rebounds, three assists) came off the bench and delivered the biggest performance of his career.

After shining in the First Four and in the win over BYU, Texas guard Tramon Mark (six points, four rebounds) struggled early against Gonzaga but came up with the assist to Heide that sealed the game.

For Gonzaga, Graham Ike led the way with a game-high 25 points while guard Jalen Warley (10 points, eight rebounds, five assists) was the only other Bulldog in double figures.

Similar to the BYU game, both sides went back and forth on offense to start the night.

Pope had the first four points of the game for Texas on two midrange jumpers but Gonzaga got a few easy looks on back cuts to the rim, catching the Longhorns sleeping.

After Vokietaitis picked up his first foul, Nic Codie came off the bench and gave Texas a nice boost with buckets in the paint, one coming against Ike.

Simeon Wilcher than found Mark for a fastbreak alley-oop layup before Ike scored in the paint to give Gonzaga a 12-8 lead, but Swain jumped a passing lane shortly after and soared in for a two-handed dunk in transition to tie the game up at the 12:28 mark.

He followed this up about a minute later with an off-the-dribble triple to beat the shot clock, putting Texas in front 15-14.

The Zags took control from this point on. After a driving dunk from Vokietaitis, Ike hit an open triple from the top of the arc. Gonzaga then went on a 7-1 run to take a 28-20 lead at the 4:10 mark.

But after a timeout, Texas responded in a major way. Two more paint buckets from Vokietaitis and Codie were followed up by a driving layup from Weaver in transition.

Emmanuel Innocenti answered this with a corner triple for Gonzaga but Texas punched back with a 7-0 run to close the half that ended with a stepback triple from Pope with five seconds left.

Texas came out of halftime and built the lead up to four after another two points in the paint from Vokietaitis but Gonzaga answered with a 7-2 run. The Longhorns punched back with a quick 4-0 run from Swain and Weaver before Gonzaga got a 5-0 run after a triple from Saint-Supery to give the Bulldogs a 45-43 lead at the 14:55 mark.

The two teams continued to go back and forth, but Texas then appeared to be creating a bit of seperation. An offensive rebound led to another triple from Pope, giving Texas a 62-56 lead at the 5:30 mark.

Gonzaga needed an answer and got it, using a quick 4-0 run to cut the lead back to two at 66-64 with 2:52 to play, but Pope didn't blink, hitting another triple to push the lead back to five.

Heide then ended things with a corner triple to seal the win.

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