Texas Basketball improved to 3-0 on the season with an 80-64 win over the Rice Owls (1-2) on Wednesday night. Junior guard Tyrese Hunter paved the way for the Longhorns in scoring with 18 points, followed by graduate forward Kadin Shedrick’s 15 points and four rebounds. Sophmore Dillon Mitchell added 13 rebounds in the victory, a career-high for the sophmore forward.
The Owls kept things close in the first half, trailing the Longhorns by just 4 points with 2:21 remaining. Tyrese Hunter’s three-pointer at the 2:00 mark increased Texas’ lead by 7 points and Chendall Weaver’s two free throws with 1:06 left allowed Rodney Terry’s club take a 41-32 lead into halftime. The Longhorns dominated the second half, increasing its lead to as many as 20 points with 1:51 remaining in the game.
Texas shot 60.4% from the floor and converted 45.5% from three-point range while Rice shot 38.3% from the floor and 18.2% from behind the arc. The ‘Horns turned the ball over 16 times compared to the Owls’ 9.
The Longhorns will next face the Louisville Cardinals (2-1) on Sunday at 2:30 PM at Madison Square Garden as part of the Saatva Empire Classic. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN.
