Texas Longhorns Fall 79-77 as Purdue Wins on Buzzer Tip-In
The Texas Longhorns lost narrowly to the Purdue Boilermakers with a score of 79–77. The final result of the game was decided at the very last moment when the Boilermakers’ Trey Kaufman-Renn scored a tip-in basket with less than 1 second left in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region semifinals on Thursday night. Following the victory against the athletic team that represents the University of Texas at Austin, Purdue advanced to the Elite Eight.
The No. 11-seed Texas Longhorns’ season came to an end on Thursday night, and their magical run in March Madness is one of the highly rated performances in the history of the tournament. Despite the last-minute loss, the Texas Longhorns showed the ultimate team spirit and played with dominance throughout the game. Purdue’s narrow win over Texas helped them advance to the next stage of the campaign, and what helped them win the match is their dominance in inside scoring and second chances.
Tramon Mark scored 29 points for Texas, while Kaufman-Renn led Purdue with 20 points and dominant inside play, helping his team secure the victory. According to match reports, Kaufman-Renn had scored 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting to lead Purdue, while also winning multiple physical battles in the post that had resulted in key fouls on Texas sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis. The reports noted that his last-second heroics had overshadowed strong performances from Mark and Pope. It was added that Mark had recorded a game-high 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting, including 5-of-7 from three-point range, despite struggling through the second half due to an ankle injury. The reports further stated that Purdue had secured a 38–30 advantage in points in the paint and had capitalized on seven Texas turnovers to score 14 points, an eight-point differential, while Texas had gone 8-of-15 from the free-throw line.
“We Got A Good Shot There At The End,” Says Boilermakers Coach Matt Painter
Following the victory against the Longhorns, Boilermaker coach Matt Painter reflected on his thoughts about the game. Matt Painter said that sometimes a team’s best offense was a missed shot in those situations. He explained that they had gotten a good shot at the end and added that Braden Smith had executed well, made the right read, and taken the right shot. He noted that the timing had been perfect and that ideally, a team wanted a chance for a put-back, adding that if that did not happen, the game would go to overtime.
Texas coach Sean Miller said that he did not know if he had been part of a team that had come so far in such a short period of time as that group, noting that his team had even played in the First Four. He added that he had often used the word “resilience” to describe his players and said he believed it was very appropriate.
Yahoo Sports analyst Dalen Cuff observed that he would have liked to see Trey Kaufman-Renn used more in middle isolation and in the short roll, as had been effective in the first half, but added that it ultimately did not matter. He noted that Kaufman-Renn had still scored 20 points while shooting 80% from the field and had delivered on the offensive boards when it mattered to secure the win and send Purdue, as a two seed, into the Elite Eight. He further remarked on the team’s impressive run, play, and the presence of a senior group, which he pointed out is rarely seen in college basketball.
