Jordan Pope is finally looking at home in Moody Center.
Pope, a 6-foot-2 junior guard who transferred to Texas basketball from Oregon State in the offseason, scored a career-high 42 points in the Longhorns’ 98-62 home win over New Orleans Thursday. That total is the highest for Texas since Reggie Freeman scored 43 points against Fresno State in 1996, and it also set a scoring record for Moody Center, which opened in 2022.
“I was just trying to play free and play my game and just be confident, be aggressive and make winning plays,” Pope said. “I blanked out there a little bit. My teammates were really more more excited than I was. They were trusting me. They were feeding me. They wanted more for me than I did.”
Pope’s previous career-high of 31 points came against Arizona last season, and he broke that mark when he nailed a transition 3-pointer with 5 minutes, 45 seconds left in the game on an assist by Chendall Weaver. He ended the game shooting 15-of-21 from the field and 8-of-12 from 3-point range, which was two short of the school record for most made 3-pointers by an individual in a single game. He added four free throws on five attempts.
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The scoring explosion from Pope continues a recent trend. Pope averaged 17.6 points a game in 2023-24 but seemed to leave his scoring in the Pacific Northwest early in the season. Through the first nine games, Pope shot just 40% from the field while averaging 7.9 points a game. But in the past three games, Pope has made 26 of 39 shots and 13 3-pointers while averaging 23 points a game.
Texas coach Rodney Terry said he’d like to see more shots even though Pope is nominally the team’s starting point guard.
“Jordan, to a fault, is really trying to do everything we’ve asked him to do,” Terry said. “He’s a great kid away from the basketball court., and he’s a great kid to coach on the court, but he’s trying to do everything to a fault in terms of being a point guard. We really just yell at him for not shooting the ball, because we want him to shoot the basketball.
“He’s a guy that we expect to become an offensive force, and a guy that, when he’s open, shoots the basketball. He is a really good shooter and one of the better shooters on our team.”
Arthur Kaluma tallied 15 points and 10 rebounds for Texas, which marked his third double-double of the season. Weaver added 12 points.
Freshman Tre Johnson, a 6-6 shooting guard who leads the SEC in scoring at 19.9 points a game, missed his second consecutive game. After the game, Terry reiterated that Johnson remains “day to day.”
Forward Jayson Kent missed his eighth consecutive game although he went through full warmups.
The Longhorns (10-2) have 10 days off before completing their nonconference schedule with a home game against Northwestern State Dec. 29. Texas opens SEC play at Texas A&M Jan. 4.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Jordan Pope sets record as Texas basketball roll past New Orleans
