Texas Longhorns Claw Past No. 22 Missouri Tigers For Second SEC Win

AUSTIN -- The sudden snow wasn't the only rarity on the Forty Acres Tuesday, as the Texas Longhorns and Missouri Tigers met for the first time since 2011 and first-ever as conference foes.

And like the weather outside the Moody Center, both teams got off to a cold start but it was the Longhorns who picked up a much-needed SEC win.

Arthur Kaluma scored a team-high 14 points and had 12 rebounds as Texas scraped past No. 22 Mizzou, 61-53. The Longhorns held their old Big 12 rivals to a season-low in points and moved to 2-4 in SEC play as a result. Texas' win is also its first this season over an AP Poll-ranked opponent.

"We just had a deep freeze over here last night, and we were still kind of thawing out a little bit," Texas head coach Rodney Terry said on SEC Network.

Texas Longhorns guard Julian Larry (1) dribbles toward the basket as the Longhorns take on Mizzou at the Moody Center on Jan. 21, 2025. | Mikala Compton/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Missouri guard Tamar Bates had a monstrous dunk over Kadin Shedrick in the second half but was the only Tiger in double figures with 10 points. The Longhorns held SEC Player of the Week Caleb Grill to just six points.

Texas guard Tre Johnson struggled from the field, but had a game-sealing acrobatic layup in the final minute en route to finishing with 12 points on 3 of 15 shooting. Shedrick added nine points and nine rebounds. Seven of his points came in the final eight minutes of the second half.

Julian Larry scored the first point of the game at the 16:19 with a free throw to give Texas a 1-0 lead. Missouri got the game's first field goal on the next possession. The Longhorns didn't make their first basket until 11:48 with a layup from Kadin Shedrick on a nice pass from Larry.

Things picked up when Pope nailed back-to-back triples to put Texas up 13-8. The two teams then combined to score the game's next 12 points from the free throw line before the best sequence of the first half.

The Longhorns scored on back-to-back fastbreak 3s from Kaluma and Johnson but Grill answered with a deep triple of his own before adding two more at the foul line. Texas called timeout before the final possession of the half, which ended with a vicious one-handed slam from Tramon Mark on an assist from Larry to give the Longhorns a 32-25 lead headed into the break.

Mizzou scored the first five points to start the second half before a 9-2 run eventually put the Tigers up 41-38 at the 13:58 mark.

However, both teams got cold again. Neither side made a field goal for over six minutes after Ze'Rik Onyema had scored in the paint for Texas at 13:28. The Tigers finally broke the drought with two points from Mitchell before Bates' dunk on Shedrick.

But it was a crucial 9-1run by Texas in the final minutes that helped put the game away, which was highlighted by a second-chance layup from Kaluma in traffic and Johnson's clutch layup.

The Longhorns now add to their NCAA Tournament resume with the win but still have a ton of work to do with just a 2-4 conference record. Texas hosts No. 13 Texas A&M on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. CT.

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