{"id":225824,"date":"2026-03-29T13:35:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/225824\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T13:35:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:35:34","slug":"purdue-79-77-texas-mar-26-2026-game-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/225824\/","title":{"rendered":"Purdue 79-77 Texas (Mar 26, 2026) Game Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE, Calif. — \u2014 Trey Kaufman-Renn<\/a> has heard coach Matt Painter remind the Boilermakers so many times during his four years at Purdue that it’s not always the first shot of a possession that matters most.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s those tip-ins at the end of the games,\u201d Kaufman-Renn recalled of the message. \u201cHe said that my four years here, so it’s kind of cool to experience that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, Kaufman-Renn’s quick hands at the rim extended a special NCAA Tournament<\/a> run for Purdue.<\/p>\n

Kaufman-Renn tipped in a miss by <\/a>Braden Smith<\/a> with 0.7 seconds left, and the No. 2-seed Boilermakers edged hobbling Texas star Tramon Mark<\/a> and the 11th-seeded Longhorns 79-77 on Thursday night in the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n

Texas (21-15) tied it moments earlier when Dailyn Swain<\/a> made a driving layup, was fouled and converted the three-point play with 11.9 seconds to go. Smith had scored on his own drive with 38 seconds remaining and finished with 16 points. <\/p>\n

Kaufman-Renn hit his first seven shots \u2014 going 6 for 6 and grabbing five rebounds in the first half \u2014 on the way to 20 points. He was mobbed by teammates right after the final buzzer sounded at SAP Center. <\/p>\n

Purdue will play top-seeded Arizona on Saturday night with a chance to advance to the Final Four.<\/p>\n

Texas had subbed 7-foot center Matas Vokietaitis<\/a> out of the game with 11 seconds left after Boilermakers big man Oscar Cluff<\/a> had fouled out, giving Purdue a better opportunity in the paint. Kaufman-Renn got himself right under the front of the rim after Smith missed on his drive.<\/p>\n

“The No. 1 thing for us to have a chance today was to rebound with Purdue,” Texas coach Sean Miller said. “I thought we really struggled to rebound on defense.”<\/p>\n

Mark scored 29 for the Longhorns, grimacing and clearly in pain limping on his injured leg through the closing minutes when the sixth-year senior’s team needed him most. His points were the most by a Texas player in an NCAA Tournament game since Kevin Durant scored 30 against Southern California in the second round of the 2007 tournament.<\/p>\n

Purdue (30-8) advances to Saturday\u2019s Elite Eight game against either top-seeded Arizona (34-2) or No. 4 seed Arkansas (28-8), who were playing the late game in San Jose.<\/p>\n

The teams traded baskets and chances most of the night. <\/p>\n

Chendall Weaver<\/a> scored off his offensive rebound with 1:03 to play pulling Texas within 73-72 after Smith had made only one of two free throws. <\/p>\n

Vokietaitis hit a pair of free throws with 20 seconds left before Purdue\u2019s C.J. Cox<\/a> made two at the 19.4-second mark.<\/p>\n

Another miss for Miller <\/p>\n

Miller made his ninth Sweet 16 appearance in 21 seasons, the most of any coach who hasn\u2019t reached the Final Four. The Longhorns had won three straight following a three-game losing streak \u2014 this time with football coach Steve Sarkisian among an animated Texas crowd sitting a few rows off courtside.<\/p>\n

“It feels really good to be a part of what we did, that’s the one thing I would say,” Miller said.<\/p>\n

Smith’s drive <\/p>\n

Smith thought he’d taken a winning shot, then was left beneath the basket to watch his teammate deliver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was standing under the rim, I was like \u2018Please get in there, please get in there,\u2019 and it did,\u201d said Smith, who also dished out five assists. \u201cTrey tipped it perfectly and I was like \u2018Thank God, thank God that went in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What an ending for Mark <\/p>\n

Mark was going to stay on the floor for his final game any way he could. He took three foul shots in pain with 16:20 left after a hard fall and foul by Fletcher Loyer<\/a>, briefly exiting before coming back.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being a competitor wanting to play and wanting to advance for my teammates,” he said of how he withstood the pain, “wanting to keep this thing going.”<\/p>\n

Homecoming for Pope <\/p>\n

Jordan Pope<\/a> scored 12 points in 33 minutes for Texas playing in his native Bay Area, coming back after breaking his foot late in a second-round win over Gonzaga<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pope, who was born and raised in nearby Oakland, appreciated the medical team that helped make it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant a lot, a moment that I’m sure I’ll remember for the rest of my life, something that’s a lot bigger than myself and my play,” Pope said. “… I had nothing to lose it\u2019s the Sweet 16.”<\/p>\n

—— <\/p>\n

AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-mens-bracket<\/a> and coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE, Calif. — \u2014 Trey Kaufman-Renn has heard coach Matt Painter remind the Boilermakers so many times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-225824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225824","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=225824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}