{"id":212424,"date":"2026-03-20T03:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/212424\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T03:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:44:10","slug":"texas-knocks-off-byu-with-upset-win-in-first-round-of-march-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/212424\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas knocks off BYU with upset win in first round of March Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BYU\u2019s season has already come to an end.<\/p>\n<p>In the first round of March Madness on Thursday night, the Cougars were bested by No. 11 seed Texas in a 79-71 loss in a West Region matchup.<\/p>\n<p>Texas had a solid performance throughout, with four of their players scoring at least 10 points, and big man Matas Vokietaitis led the way with 23 points and 16 rebounds while shooting 10-for-17 from the field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought Matas had one of his best games,\u201d Longhorns head coach Sean Miller said in a sideline\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CBSSportsCBB\/status\/2034811297141867006\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">interview following the game<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38838568\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/dailyn-swain-3-matas-vokietaitis-124022613.jpg\" alt=\"Dailyn Swain, Matas Vokietaitis, and another Texas Longhorns player celebrating during a basketball game against the BYU Cougars.\" class=\"wp-image-38838568\"  \/>Dailyn Swain and Matas Vokietaitis of the celebrate during the second half of Texas\u2019 79-71 win over BYU in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Tournament at Moda Center on March 19, 2026 in Portland, Ore. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Longhorns were mostly in control of Thursday\u2019s game, leading by nine at halftime, and did not lose their lead once in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>BYU forward AJ Dybantsa\u2019s 35-point performance was not enough for the Cougars, with their bench failing to score a point the entire game.<\/p>\n<p>Miller said that going into Thursday\u2019s game, his team had a plan to not let Dybantsa force his players to take more fouls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur plan was we can\u2019t let him foul our team out, and the other guys can\u2019t have good nights with his great night,\u201d Miller said of facing off against Dybansta. \u201cI think he\u2019s pretty much a given.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38839009\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP_NCAA_Texas_BYU_Basketball_52827-826ca-0.jpg\" alt=\"Texas guard Tramon Mark (12) reacts after the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament against BYU, Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Portland, Ore.\" class=\"wp-image-38839009\"  \/>Texas guard Tramon Mark (12) reacts after the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament against BYU, Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Portland, Ore. AP<\/p>\n<p>During the game, Miller admitted that he didn\u2019t believe that his team really could slow down Dybansta.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think we can,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CBBKings\/status\/2034785262887162219\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Miller said of containing the BYU forward<\/a>. \u201cWe have to do the best job we can, and we can\u2019t accumulate fouls. That\u2019s not going to allow our team to be the best that we can be.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re trying hard, I\u2019m not giving in. But there\u2019s just very little you can do with that right there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dybantsa, who averaged 25.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists for his freshman season, is viewed as one of the top prospects for this year\u2019s NBA draft.<\/p>\n<p>Texas is set to face off against the winner of Gonzaga and Kennesaw State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BYU\u2019s season has already come to an end. In the first round of March Madness on Thursday night,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[794,2692,48876,80673,154,27,29,537,28],"class_list":["post-212424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-byu-cougars","tag-college-basketball","tag-march-madness","tag-march-madness-2026","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\/212424","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=212424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}