{"id":209358,"date":"2026-03-18T05:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/209358\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T05:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:10:07","slug":"texas-wins-first-four-march-madness-game-over-nc-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/209358\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas wins First Four March madness game over NC.State"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DAYTON, Ohio \u2014 Tramon Mark hit a fadeaway jumper from just inside the 3-point line with 1.1 seconds left, and Texas survived a late rally to beat N.C. State 68-66 on Tuesday night in <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/17\/sports\/howard-squeaks-past-umbc-for-first-ncaa-tournament-win-ever\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a First Four matchup<\/a> of power-conference teams that limped into March Madness.<\/p>\n<p>Mark scored 17 points to lead the Longhorns (19-14), who had lost five of six entering the NCAA Tournament. Texas moved into the bracket as the No. 11 seed in the West region and will face sixth-seeded BYU on Thursday night in Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n<p>Coach Sean Miller\u2019s Longhorns led 62-53 on Chendall Weaver\u2019s two free throws with 2:56 left, but the Wolfpack (20-14) \u2014 who also lost five of six before getting sent to Dayton \u2014 scored 10 points in a span of 1:12. Paul McNeil Jr. hit two 3s before Mark beat the shot clock with a fadeaway.<\/p>\n<p>Darrion Williams connected from deep to get N.C. State within one. The Wolfpack then forced a turnover by Dailyn Swain, and Tre Holloman made one of two free throws to tie it at 66-all.<\/p>\n<p>Texas ran down most of the game clock before Mark connected from 19 feet, and N.C. State couldn\u2019t get a shot off before the buzzer.<\/p>\n<p>Mark finished with 17 points, Matas Vokietaitis scored 15 and Swain added 13 for the Longhorns. Weaver recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38814803\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Tramon-Mark.jpg\" alt=\"Tramon Mark hits a fadeaway jumper from just inside the 3-point line with 1.1 seconds left to lead Texas to a 68-66 win over N.C. State in a First Four matchup on March 17, 2026.\" class=\"wp-image-38814803\"  \/>Tramon Mark hits a fadeaway jumper from just inside the 3-point line with 1.1 seconds left to lead Texas to a 68-66 win over N.C. State in a First Four matchup on March 17, 2026. AP<\/p>\n<p>Darrion Williams led the Wolfpack with 21 points. Quadir Copeland scored 16 and McNeil finished with 11.<\/p>\n<p>It was the second meeting this season between the schools. Texas beat N.C. State 102-97 on Nov. 26 to claim fifth place in the Maui Invitational. Tuesday night\u2019s game was more of a defensive struggle.<\/p>\n<p>The Longhorns built a 25-15 lead but then went scoreless over the final 4:06 of the first half. The Wolfpack finished the half on a 14-5 run to cut their deficit to 30-29 at halftime.<\/p>\n<p>Up next<\/p>\n<p>Texas is the third school Miller has taken to March Madness, and he\u2019ll have to devise a plan to contain one of the best players in the country, BYU\u2019s AJ Dybantsa.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAYTON, Ohio \u2014 Tramon Mark hit a fadeaway jumper from just inside the 3-point line with 1.1 seconds&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2692,48876,80673,3112,20863,154,27,29,537,28],"class_list":["post-209358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-college-basketball","tag-march-madness","tag-march-madness-2026","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-north-carolina-state-wolfpack","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}