Rick Barnes built a lot of memories in his 17 seasons as basketball coach of the Texas Longhorns.
He'll never forget his first game back in Austin while guiding Tennessee.
A frantic comeback by the No. 18 Volunteers came up short Saturday night at the Erwin Center when Josiah-Jordan James missed an open 3-point attempt just before time expired in a 52-51 thriller.
Tennessee was dead and buried with 5:34 remaining, when a Courtney Ramey layup put the Longhorns up 51-35, but freshman backup point guard Zakai Zeigler led the Vols on a 16-0 run that surprisingly deadlocked the final game of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
Zeigler's 3-pointer with 2:57 left pulled the Vols within 51-45, and then the 5-foot-9, 167-pounder from Long Island made consecutive layups to make it a two-point game. A putback by Austin resident Victor Bailey at the 1:28 mark pulled Tennessee even, but the Longhorns broke the tie on Timmy Allen's free throw with 6.2 seconds remaining.
The Vols called a timeout, and Zeigler inbounded the ball before quickly getting it back and firing a pass to James, who didn't miss by much.
Ramey scored a game-high 18 points for the Longhorns (16-5), while Zeigler and James scored 12 and 11, respectively, for the Vols (14-6). Tennessee junior guard Santiago Vescovi scored three points and was 1-of-8 from the floor, ending a streak of nine consecutive contests with at least 13 points.
AP photo by Stephen Spillman / Texas guard Marcus Carr, left, and Tennessee's Zakai Zeigler battle for the baketball during a Big 12/SEC Challenge game Saturday night in Austin.Tennessee entered Saturday as one of the Southeastern Conference's most reliable teams in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, having prevailed in four of the previous five years, and the Vols had an opportunity to give the SEC a 7-3 record in this year's 10-game extravaganza. Instead, the SEC collected wins from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky and Ole Miss to match its 6-4 finish of 2018.
The Texas-Tennessee game was the only one in this year's Big 12/SEC Challenge decided by fewer than nine points.
A pair of Zeigler free throws with 1:22 remaining in the first half gave Tennessee a 25-22 lead, but the Longhorns scored the final five points before intermission and kept pulling away after the break. When Tennessee finally scored again on a Kennedy Chandler steal and layup with 14:48 to play, the Vols were down 37-27.
Ramey's 3-pointer 22 seconds later made it 40-27, forcing Tennessee to take a timeout.
Barnes guided the Longhorns to a 402-180 record from 1998 to 2015 and to 16 NCAA tournament appearances. He was recognized before the game, with many of his former players among the sellout crowd of 16,540.
There was no Zoom availability with Barnes or his players after the game, as Tennessee was expected to head immediately back to Knoxville. The Vols return to SEC play Tuesday night by hosting Texas A&M, which was a surprise 74-63 loser Saturday night to visiting South Carolina.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.