No. 8 Longhorns Lean on Backcourt, Hot Shooting in Blowout vs. No. 23 Iowa State

In Austin on Tuesday, the Texas Longhorns accomplished many things that seemed impossible when they lost their first matchup with the Iowa State Cyclones in January.

When the Texas Longhorns visited the Iowa State Cyclones on Jan. 17, they found themselves with an early double-digit lead after a hot shooting start on the road.

Texas was hardly able to keep that advantage up in what ended up being a 78-67 loss.

But at the Moody Center on Tuesday, the No. 8 Longhorns were able to sustain some lengthier success against the No. 23 Cyclones, using elite guard play and an explosive 16-0 run in the first half to cruise to a 72-54 win. 

The win for the Longhorns jumps them back up into a tie for first in the Big 12 with the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks, though they hold the tiebreaker over Texas.

Texas' backcourt led the way Tuesday, as all three of its double-digit scoring performances came from the guards. Tyrese Hunter (15 points) got some slight revenge over his former team while Marcus Carr (11 points, five assists) and Sir'Jabari Rice (15 points) continued their recent stellar play.

Iowa State, which was without talented guard and leading rebounder Caleb Grill, was led by Gabe Kalscheur (10 points) and Osun Osunniyi (12 points, six rebounds) while Jaren Holmes had an all-around game with nine points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Texas finished 12 of 28 from the 3-point line while getting 34 points from its bench. The Horns did this while also forcing Iowa State into 16 turnovers.

The first half started with some back-and-forth jabs, but the Longhorns gained an edge thanks to their own hot shooting and a flurry of Iowa State turnovers.

Behind seven quick points from Rice, the Longhorns had put together a 16-0 run to take a 20-10 lead. Kalscheur answered with back-to-back triples of his own, but Texas had another run in store. Hunter had eight points on two made 3s in a two-minute span to highlight an 11-0 run.

Suddenly, Texas led 36-21. And to make matters worse for Iowa State, Carr and Rice combined for three more triples, quickly turning the game into a blowout.

Texas was burning the nets in the first half, going 9 of 16 from beyond the arc. All of these makes came from the backcourt quartet of Carr, Rice, Hunter and Arterio Morris. The Longhorns had more three-point field goals (nine) than two-point field goals (eight) in the first, explaining why they trotted into the locker room with a big 47-29 lead.

Even though a triple from Brock Cunningham marked Texas' first points of the second half at the 14:59 mark, the Longhorns had held the Cyclones to just four points of their own after six minutes of play.

Cunningham had strung together eight straight points to keep Iowa State at bay after forward Tre King had himself a mini 5-0 run. But this was the last real gasp that Iowa State had.

Rice nailed a turnaround baseline fadeaway before Hunter hit a triple from the corner, giving Texas a 62-42 lead with over nine minutes left. But the remaining minutes turned into garbage time, as the Longhorns were able to rest their way to a huge conference win.

Texas will visit the No. 9 Baylor Bears on Saturday in Waco.

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You can follow Zach Dimmitt on Twitter at @ZachDimmitt7

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