Tramon Mark Hits Game Winner as Texas Survives NC State in March Madness

The Texas Longhorns are moving on in the NCAA Tournament.

Texas Longhorns guard Tramon Mark celebrates in the first half against the NC State Wolfpack during a first four game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at University of Dayton Arena. | Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

The Texas Longhorns are on the right side of a March Madness thriller.

Tramon Mark finished with a team-high 17 points and hit the game-winning shot with one second left as Texas survived NC State in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament in Dayton on Tuesday night.

The Longhorns will now advance to the Round of 64 as the No. 11 seed and will play No. 6 BYU in Portland, OR. on Thursday.

Tramon Mark Hits Fourth-Career Game-Winning Shot

Texas Longhorns guard Tramon Mark shoots the ball over NC State Wolfpack forward Darrion Williams in the second half during a first four game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at University of Dayton Arena. | Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

Chendall Weaver added 11 points, 10 rebounds and two steals off the bench for Texas while Dailyn Swain had 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Texas blew a late lead, allowing NC State to tie the game at 66 with 18 seconds left before Mark came up clutch.

The Longhorns got hot from deep in the first few minutes, as Pope, Heide and Mark all nailed a triple to give Texas an early 9-2 lead.

Williams answered with a 3-pointer and midrange jumper of his own to cut the lead to 12-9. He hit another triple a few minutes later but Texas still led 16-12 at the 11:19 mark.

The Longhorns continued to do most of their work from the outside. Mark and Swain went back-to-back from deep before a free throw from Weaver at 8:08 put Texas up 25-15.

Texas looked like it was in position to build a solid lead headed into halftime but the offense stalled.

The Longhorns went scoreless for nearly four minutes in the closing stages of the half as NC State used two separate 6-0 runs to cut the lead to 30-29 headed into halftime. Texas went the final 8:40 without making a field goal, which included hitting just one of its last 12 field goals, before heading into the locker room.

Coming out of halftime, NC State took its first lead since it was 2-0 after a transition triple from Paul McNeil Jr. put the Wolfpack up 34-32.

The Longhorns started to pull away late due to some increased success in the paint, something they struggled with in the first half.

But NC State cut into the lead and eventually tied things up after Tre Holloman went 1 of 2 at the foul line with 18 seconds left.

Despite nearly choking the game away, Mark came up big and now Texas lives to see another day.

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