By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — It does not take long to find someone for whom to root on the Texas basketball team, even for those who are not Longhorns fans. Just pick up a copy of the team’s numerical roster and stop two from the top, at jersey No. 1 and guard Andrew Jones.
Jones’s two-year battle with — and triumph over — leukemia has been well documented, but how far he has come as a basketball player since his diagnosis in January 2018 was under question with the beginning of this basketball season.
That question has been[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] answered and it took just 29 minutes of court time in the Longhorns’ first game of the 2019-20 season.
Jones scored a career-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting in his most time on the court in almost two years to help Texas roll past overmatched Northern Colorado, 69-45, Tuesday at the Frank Erwin Center in the season opener for each team.
Jones received limited playing time in two games last season while undergoing treatment for leukemia. He played in all 33 of UT’s games as a freshman on 2016-17, and was granted medical redshirts for past two seasons because of his illness.
“Andrew has been out a long time and people might have forgotten about him,” Texas guard Courtney Ramey said. “This game tonight probably woke them up.”
Jones scored 10 of his points during a 14-0 run that turned a 36-23 Texas lead into a rout before the midway point of the second half. Jones canned four of his five three-point attempts.
“It was a great feeling to just get out there with my teammates and play with no restrictions,” Jones said. “I didn’t know what to expect, but I was just focused on the game plan and doing whatever I could to get us a win.
“I was focused on just the team things, not thinking at all about anything individual. I have to just stay humble, and understand I’m here to contribute and help us win. I trust the work we’ve all put in in the offseason.”
Texas coach Shaka Smart said watching Jones play and play so well was “really emotional.”
“It’s been 23 months since he’s played ‘Andrew Jones basketball’ in a Texas uniform,” Smart said. “I wasn’t surprised at how he played. He did a lot of the things that Andrew does and has done in the past. He had an opportunity and made the most of it.”
Ramey added 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Longhorns (1-0) while Matt Coleman III hit for 10 points for Texas in the win.
Sam Masten led the Bears with 11 points and Jonah Radebaugh took down a game-high 11 rebounds for Northern Colorado (0-1). The Bears shot just 27.3 percent from the floor and 2-of-21 from beyond the arc.
“The defensive effort was great. We got a ton of stops,” Smart said. “Over the course of 40 minutes, it was a good first game as far as effort on that end, but at the same there’s a lot we can improve on.”
Texas shrugged off a slow shooting start to take a 34-15 lead at halftime. The Longhorns led by just a point at 6-5 six-and-a-half minutes into the game, but went on a 12-0 run over the next five minutes to all but put Northern Colorado to sleep by the end of the half.
Ramey led all scorers with 8 points and 8 rebounds in the first half. Nobody had more than four points in the half for Northern Colorado.
The Bears cut UT’s lead to 13 points, at 36-23, on three free throws by Bodie Hume at the 17:51 mark of the second half but that was as close as they would get.
The champions of the National Invitational Tournament after missing the NCAA Tournament for the third time since 2013, Texas has been picked to finish fourth in the powerful Big 12 Conference behind Kansas, Baylor and Texas Tech.
Northern Colorado went 21-11 in 2018-19 and lost in the first round of the Big Sky Conference tournament. The Bears were predicted to finish fourth this year in the league preseason poll.
“You can see Texas has built off its NIT run from last year, especially the younger players,” Northern Colorado coach Jeff Linder said. “Jones adds a whole other element to the team. They are very hard to guard. Texas’s discipline defensively made things every difficult on us.
Next up for Texas a road game Saturday at Purdue. The Longhorns return home to face Cal Baptist Nov. 12.
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