Ramey, Coleman lead Texas men’s basketball to season-opening rout
AUSTIN, Texas — Guards Courtney Ramey and Matt Coleman scored 20 and 17 points, respectively, and heralded freshman Greg Brown notched a double-double in his collegiate debut Wednesday to help lead the No. 19/22 Texas men’s basketball team to a 91-55 rout of Texas-Rio Grande Valley at the Frank Erwin Center.
The Longhorns connected on 31 of 54 field goals (57.4 percent), thanks in part to 76.2 percent marksmanship in the second half. They were as stingy on the defensive end as they were on target on the offensive end, limiting the Vaqueros to 26.1 percent shooting. UT hit almost as many field goals in the second half, 16, as UTRGV hit in the entire game (18).
Five Texas players scored at least 10 points in the rout. Forward Kai Jones hit all six of his field goal attempts en route to scoring 14 points; junior forward Gerald Liddell added 10 points and pulled down six rebounds.
Brown scored 11 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in his debut, making him just the fourth UT player since the early 1970s to post a double-double in his first game as a freshman. The last Texas freshman to record a double-double in his debut with the Longhorns was Jarrett Allen in 2016.
The victory stretched to 19 the number of consecutive years in which the Longhorns have won their home opener. UT is 95-20 all-time in season openers, including 18-1 in the last 19 years.
In the first matchup against UTRGV since the 2009-10 season, Texas stretched its undefeated record over the Vaqueros to 7-0.
Texas returns to action at 11 a.m. (Central time) Monday in Asheville, N.C., when the Longhorns face Davidson in a game that will be carried on ESPN2.
