The victory was the third over a ranked team for Texas (12-8, 3-4 SEC) in its past five games. The Longhorns made six of their eight shots from the floor over the game’s pivotal stretch, while Georgia went nearly four and a half minutes without a field goal.
The Bulldogs led by seven points at halftime before Texas leapfrogged to a six-point lead with 12:57 to play. The Longhorns pushed their advantage to 67-54 on a layup by Matas Vokietaitis with 8:17 remaining, and then to 19 points when Camden Heide hit a 3-pointer with 6:49 to play that capped an 8-0 run and all but put the game on ice.
Vokietaitis and Jordan Pope finished with 14 points each for Texas, which shot 68.8% from the floor after halftime.
Jeremiah Wilkinson led Georgia (16-4, 4-3) with 17 points, while Somto Cyril added 12 and Jordan Ross had 11. The Bulldogs trailed by as many as 23 points and missed nine of their final 11 field-goal attempts.
The game went back and forth over the first five and a half minutes before Swain’s layup tied it at 10-10 at the 14:32 mark of the first half. Georgia opened a six-point lead on three occasions, the third when Ross canned a layup with 5:42 left before halftime to forge a 27-21 advantage.
Texas responded with the ensuing five points, drawing to within a point after Mark poured in a 3-pointer with 4:50 remaining. The Bulldogs swung back, reeling off a 10-2 run capped by a pair of free throws by Ross with 37 seconds left before Pope’s jumper allowed Texas to pull to within 37-30 at the break.
Swain led all scorers with 12 points before halftime, while Cyril’s 11 points paced the Bulldogs in the first half.
The Longhorns went right to work in the second half, scoring the first eight points — the last on a layup by Swain with 17:54 left — to go up 38-37. Georgia followed with a second-chance layup by Blue Cain, and the game was tied twice, the latest at 48-48.
