Men’s basketball takes out frustration on UAB, rolls to 96-60 win

By Steve Habel, Senior Editor

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas men’s basketball team had a measure of frustration — call it a Santa Claus-on-Christmas Eve-delivery-sized bag of angst — to unload on some unwitting opponent after a series of close-call losses in the first two months of the season.

The Longhorns took out that frustration Wednesday on UAB, whipping the Blazers, 96-60, at the Frank Erwin Center in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the lopsided score indicates. Sophomore swingman Tevin Mack poured in 18 points in leading four teammates in double-figure scoring.

Freshman forward Jarrett Allen (8 for 9 from the floor) and freshman guard [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]Andrew Jones added 16 points each for the Longhorns (6-5) while senior guard Kendal Yancy hit for 14 points off the bench and senior forward Shaquille Cleare scored 10 points for Texas.

UT led by 16 points at the intermission and poured it on in the second half, pushing their advantage to 36 points, at 86-50, with 5:37 to play after a three-pointer by Mack. The Longhorns kept their foot on the gas, owning a 96-56 lead in the final minute.

The Longhorns outshot UAB (6-6), 53.7-41.5, percent from the floor, hit 12 of their 28 three-point attempts and converted all 12 of their free throw attempts. Texas also outrebounded the Blazers 29-23, had 16 assists to seven for UAB and took 11 steals to six for the Blazers in a near-complete domination.

“It’s probably the best game that we’ve played this year, but that’s always relevant to how the other team played,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. “We can do a lot of things we did tonight better.

“At the start of the year there was a feeling-out process, and part of that comes from not playing together. Tonight’s game was a glimpse of what individual guys working together can do when they are clear of mind. It’s a look into ‘that’s how we can be if we can sustain that more often.’”

UAB was led by guard Dirk Williams’ 13 points while Hakeem Baxter and Tyler Madison had eight points apiece for the Blazers.

“We needed to play better and we did,” Smart said. “Anytime you can win by a big margin like this, you don’t feel the level of anxiety that we have been through. There’s no tension in the process — it’s just a matter of us trusting each other, and it’s easier to do that when you have a lead and working margin like we did.

“(The UT players) understand, but they don’t understand. You have to live it, you have to go through it. You have to learn it, and when you have a level of faith, which is trust without evidence, you have to understand what you’re working toward. Results are important, but we are not going to get results if you don’t go through the process.”

Texas led for all but 1:04 of the first half and pushed its advantage to 35-20 with a 14-2 run over a 5:38 span. Eric Davis, Jr., who has been mired in a slump in which he has made just 18 percent of his long-distance shots, had back-to-back three-pointers during the run, while Cleare and Jacob Young added layups when the Longhorns pushed the ball inside.

“We are starting to trust each other more and we have been going really hard during practice,” Jones said. “My confidence is growing, and it’s my job to get the ball to my guys. We are starting to look for the extra pass, get the ball to the open man and not take things into our own hands. This has been a long time coming.”

The Longhorns led by as much as 18 points in the first half before settling for a 43-27 advantage at the intermission.

Eight of the nine players who took the court for the Longhorns in the first half scored as UT’s bench outscored UAB’s reserves, 10-9, in the first 20 minutes of play. Texas outshot UAB, 48.6-34.6, percent in the first half.

“It was a very disappointing loss for our program because of the way it happened today,” UAB coach Robert Ehsan said. “Give Texas a lot of credit. They played extremely well, their pressure bothered us, they made a lot of threes and they got going from the perimeter. We didn’t show up to play for 40 minutes. Coming off the Arkansas loss, Texas came out today with a very good mindset that we did not answer very well.”

The Longhorns return to the court next Tuesday, Dec. 27 when they host Kent State in their final game before the start of the Big 12 Conference grind. Texas has more losses than any other team in the league and as many as the top six squads in the Big 12 combined (Baylor, 12-0; Kansas, 10-1; Kansas State, 10-1; TCU, 10-1; Texas Tech, 10-1; and West Virginia 9-1).

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