With a crowd of friends and family in attendance at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, Texas Longhorns senior forward Kadin Shedrick made a game-winning block after standing strong in the lane.

After growing up 20 minutes away in Holly Springs, it was fitting for the North Carolina native to help the Horns edge the NC State Wolfpack, 63-59, on Wednesday in Texas’ first true road game this season.

Texas junior guard Chendall Weaver finished the game with a fast-break dunk after Shedrick’s block.

Longhorns star freshman Tre Johnson scored a game-high 18 points on 4-of-6 shooting from three in an up-and-down performance that saw the 6-foot, 190-pound player commit four turnovers and four personal fouls , but also came up with the biggest throw of the game with a catch-and-shoot three-pointer with 1:43 minutes left and thus ensured the victory 57:57 draw.

Shedrick wasn’t particularly active on the stat sheet in his homecoming, scoring five points on 2-of-3 shooting with five rebounds and two blocks in 33 minutes, but Texas got more of a boost from junior guard Jordan Pope, who scored 13 points with three made threesomes. The Oregon State transfer also turned the ball over three times, including twice on off-court plays.

On the glass, Kaluma grabbed 15 big rebounds for the Horns. Like most Texas players, there was a downside – 3 of 11 shooting from the field and two turnovers.

While the Longhorns led for most of the game and only trailed 8:50, it wasn’t an aesthetically pleasing performance against a solid Wolfpack defensive team that held Texas to 2 of 14 shots on layups. Luckily, the Horns were able to throw down six dunks.

Both teams also missed opportunities at the free throw line, as Texas made 7 of 14 shots and NC State made 6 of 14 shots from the charity line.

Texas took a 9-0 lead, forcing NC State head coach Kevin Keatts to call a 30-second timeout just 2:03 into the game. The Wolfpack settled down once they got the ball into the hole, making layups on their first three baskets before having some luck on contested jump shots that went in, several of which rattled over the rim.

As NC State went on an 8-3 spurt thanks to four layups, the Texas defense struggled to stop dribble penetration, a frustrating development for Longhorns head coach Rodney Terry because the Wolfpack is a poor three-point shooting team, what Texas supposedly allows people to sit in gaps and help non-shooters.

The Horns also had a string of five straight missed shots and generally struggled to get to the rim for most of the first half, starting with 1 of 8 shots on layups, due in part to the Wolf Pack’s physicality , as the refereeing allowed considerable contact in the paint.

NC State guard Marcus Hill, who made 3 of 12 shots in the previous two games in San Diego against Purdue and BYU, started with 5 of 7 shots, including hitting his third three-pointer of the season on his ninth attempt, a basket that gave him his third three-pointer of the season The Wolfpack held a 30-28 lead at the U4 timeout as Hill scored 9 of 11 points for NC State.

Johnson responded by hitting a spinning fadeaway jump shot and then finding a pull-up three on the second break.

Both teams struggled heading into halftime, with NC State missing five straight shots to end the first half and Texas failing to take advantage of opportunities at the free throw line, twice getting the front end of one-on-ones in the finale. One missed: 32 and 3-of-7 shooting from the line in the first 20 minutes, although the Horns went into the locker room with a 33-31 lead. It happened by chance when Texas failed to take advantage of NC State’s four-minute scoring loss.

Pope hit a three-pointer early in the second half and senior winger Tramon Mark read a skip pass for a breakout dunk, but NC State forward Ben Middlebook made his third career three-pointer on 25 attempts before forward Brand Presson Huntley-Hatfield in transition after a wild layup attempt by Kaluma, who finished with contact from Mark to secure a chance for a three-point play.

Johnson bailed the Longhorns out of a poor offensive possession with a long three-pointer to beat the shot clock, but Texas missed the next four shots before Kaluma blocked a push shot from Johnson and Weaver came out in transition to deliver a nice pass to Kaluma on the wing for a layup.

The Wolfpack missed two forced jumpers before the U12 timeout with the Horns leading 46-44.

As the tension grew heading into the final media timeout, Johnson turned the ball over under heavy pressure from NC State guard Jayden Taylor, but after Shedrick blocked a shot, Texas came out in transition and Johnson hit a three-pointer and Terry took advantage of his 30 seconds Timeout, the game was tied 55-55 with 4:55 minutes left.

The Horns gave up the lead a minute later when Johnson lost the ball on the rebound and the Wolfpack went out in transition as the Texas star freshman called for the goalie and tried to recover his third loss of the game.

After a slow stretch for the Longhorns that saw Pope draw a questionable offensive foul and a traveling call on Johnson on a dribble handoff, two offensive rebounds from Texas set up a catch-and-shoot three-pointer from Johnson that made it a three-pointer utilized. point lead. A goalie call on Shedrick gave NC State two points before Weaver dished out a trip to the free throw line, the final point for Texas before Weaver’s game-winning dunk.

Texas returns to the Moody Center on Sunday to host No. 25 UConn, which lost three straight games in late November before rebounding to secure two straight wins.