Horns slide past Mavericks

Final Score: Texas 63 – UT Arlington 53

1^st Half: Texas 39 – UT Arlington 28

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[*]Texas slept through the first 10 minutes, and UT-A hit three of their first four 3-point attempts. In other words, the opening went as good as possible for the Mavericks.

 

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[*]In the next 6-7 minutes, the Horns had 5 blocks. The defensive effort changed the way UT-A was shooting and netted a few easy buckets in transition for the Horns.

 

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[*]By the 5:00 mark, Texas owned a double digit lead.

 

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[*]The Mavericks hit 6 three’s in the half. That’s the thing keeping them in the game.

 

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[*]The Horns have 15 second chance points and are dominating (29-13) on the glass.

 

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2^nd Half: UT Arlington 25 – Texas 24

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[*]To start the half, Texas tries to slow the game down and focus on half-court offense. Not only is it ineffective, they also slack on defense and let the Mav’s attack the rim.

 

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[*]Texas stayed with the patient offense and had their lead evaporate to 3 points by the Under 12:00 timeout. Without Isaiah Taylor to penetrate on te dribble, the Horns don’t pass it in to the post effectively.

 

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[*]Buckets on back-to-back trips for Myles Turner put the Longhorns back up by 9. Turner followed that with consecutive trips to the free throw line. The Mavericks have no answer for him.

 

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[*]Texas was in the bonus with more than 8:00 to go.

 

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[*]The style Texas is playing in the 2^nd half leads me to believe there are specific aspects of the offense they’re working on. They haven’t run in transition despite solid defense and rebounding.

 

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[*]As a team the Horns are shooting about 21% from 3-point range – that’s not helping their interior game.

 

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Two Takeaways

1. When this team slows down and tries to run a half-court offense from the post, the offense stalls. Even the big guys are more comfortable running the floor. On nights when outside shots aren’t falling (like tonight), the Horns are going to need improvement in this aspect, in order to beat the top tier in the conference.

2. On a night when the team did not play their best basketball, Texas won by 10.

The Stat Story‘”

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[*]UT-A improved their shooting percentage in the 2^nd half (31% up to 43%).

 

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[*]The Horns only managed 5-27 from 3-point range.

 

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[*]The Mavericks had 22 points in the paint and tallied 15 points off Texas turnovers.

 

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Looking ahead

Texas travels to Lexington, KY to play the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats. The Cats are ranked No. 1 in both polls, and are 7-0 with a 32-point beatdown of the Kansas Jayhawks. Head Coach John Calipari has a roster stocked full of future NBA talent and is noted for platooning 5 players off the bench as a unit.