Texas Longhorns Blow Past Incarnate Word Cardinals in Season Opener as Transfers Dominate
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Longhorns ushered in the first full season of the Rodney Terry era in dominating fashion on Monday night at the Moody Center.
Ithiel Horton scored a team-high 17 points and No. 18 Texas (1-0) used a balanced scoring effort and suffocating defense to blow past the Incarnate Word Cardinals in a 88-56 season-opening win.
"I thought we got off to a really good start tonight," Texas coach Rodney Terry said. "I thought that our effort and preparation was really good. Thought we got off to a great start to our season."
The Longhorns, who got an impactful effort from five of their new transfer additions, had five players reach double figures in scoring. Tyrese Hunter (11 points) and Dillon Mitchell (eight points, six rebounds) had solid nights while transfer additions like Horton, Kadin Shedrick (12 points, five rebounds, three assists, three blocks), Ze'Rik Onyema (11 points, seven rebounds), Max Abmas (12 points, five rebounds) and Chendall Weaver (seven points, three rebounds) all made plays throughout the game.
Despite his impressive team debut, Horton wasn't happy that the Longhorns were nearly out-scored after barely winning the second-half scoring battle 40-39.
"Our defense was really clicking," Horton said. "Second half, I think that's just us as a team maturing. If we want to be the best defense in the Big 12, we got to keep our foot on their necks regardless if we're up by 30 or 40."
Hailing from the Southland Conference, Incarnate Word (0-1) made the short drive up from San Antonio to the Forty Acres, and looked like a confident bunch from the start of pregame. Sky Wicks led all scorers with 26 points to go along with 11 rebounds while Davante Davis added nine points.
Incarnate Word guard T.J. Ford Jr, the son of Longhorn legend and former NBA guard T.J. Ford, got first-half minutes as a true freshman against his dad's alma mater. He finished with five points, two rebounds and two assists.
Texas Longhorns forward Kadin Shedrick (5) celebrates with guard Ithiel Horton (9) during a timeout in the men s basketball game against the University of the Incarnate Word at the Moody Center
© Aaron E. Martinez, Austin American-Statesman
Despite UIW's offensive efforts, the Texas defense was too much. The Longhorns had 10 steals and nine blocks while making impact plays in both the halfcourt and transition.
Hunter hit two early triples, Abams added one of his own and Horton had five points in a 10-second span as Texas jumped out to a 26-6 lead behind a 21-0 run after trailing 6-5.
UIW had a near six-minute scoring drought before Josh Morgan nailed a triple at the 9:23 mark.
Shedrick made a big impact midway through the half. He started things off with a steal in transition for a dunk before showing his activity in the post with an and-on and 1 of 2 free throw trip on back-to-back possessions. He then made a big-time block before finding Mitchell open for the slam on the ensuing possession.
In his first four minutes as a Longhorn, Shedrick had six points, two rebounds, one assist, a steal and a block.
Texas built a 29-point lead at 41-12 with 4:02 left in the first half after a triple from Brock Cunningham. The Longhorns ballooned this to 48-17 headed into halftime.
In the first half, the Texas defense forced 10 turnovers (18 points off of) while posting seven steals and five blocks. The Longhorns also had a 21-0 edge on fastbreak scoring.
The second half was more of the same for both teams.
Horton began the half with five quick points off a triple and mid-range jumper before the Longhorns built the lead up to 38 behind four total 3s in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
The Cardinals scored more points in this span (18) than they did in the entire first half, but were in too big of a hole to make things interesting. The Longhorns also hardly took their foot off the gas on both ends and continued to make things difficult for UIW despite the large lead.
Texas flew to the finish line, and will now look toward the second game of non-conference play on Friday when it takes on Delaware State at 8 p.m. CT.
