Tyrese Hunter Leads Texas Longhorns Past Rice Owls

The Texas Longhorns took down the Rice Owls to stay undefeated in non-conference play.

AUSTIN, Texas -- With the memories of last season's meeting still fresh on the minds of fans, the Texas Longhorns hosted the Rice Owls at the Moody Center on Wednesday night. Chris Beard was set to be Texas' head coach when the old Southwest Conference foes tipped off on Dec. 12, 2022 but that day instead was the unofficial start of the Rodney Terry era.

The 115th all-time meeting between the two programs on didn't have as much drama as the 114th, but the result remained the same.

Tyrese Hunter scored a season-high 18 points and No. 19 Texas (3-0) held off an unfazed Rice squad en route to a 80-64 win to stay undefeated in non-conference play.

"They gave us a great game a year ago, and we didn't expect anything less," Texas coach Rodney Terry said.

Kadin Shedrick had his best game as a Longhorn, finishing with 15 points and four rebounds. Texas guard Max Abmas added 15 points and four assists while Dillon Mitchell finished with a career-high 13 rebounds along with six points.

The Longhorns shot 60 percent from the field and 10 of 22 from deep. Rice (1-2) was able to make things tough by winning the turnover battle 16-9.

Brock Cunningham got the start in the second half before finishing with eight points, six rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks. He earned some high praise from Rice coach Scott Pera.

"They got athletic forwards, and they got Brock, who I think is probably one of the most underrated guys in college basketball," Pera said. "I think very highly of him as a player. And as a coach, you really appreciate a guy like that. He played 31 minutes tonight, right? Because they couldn't take them off the floor."

Texas Longhorns guard Tyrese Hunter (4) passes the ball around Rice Owls guard Travis Evee (3) during the first half at Moody Center / © Scott Wachter, USA TODAY

The Owls got a team-high 17 points from guard Anthony Selden while guard Travis Evee (11 points, four assists) and forward Max Fiedler (seven points, four rebounds, five asssits) had solid nights after impressive performance's in last year's meeting.

However, the Longhorns limited Fiedler, which in turn impacted the Rice offense.

"I watched a lot of film on him going into this game," Shedrick said of Fiedler. "I saw Brock last year given him a lot of pressure and how much that kind of changed the their whole offense."

It was an exciting start for the Longhorns, who opened with an alley-oop to Shedrick seconds after opening tip. Mithcell then had an highlight with a two-handed block that led to a triple from Ithiel Horton, who had seven of Texas' first nine points.

The Longhorns made 10 of their first 14 shots, four of which were 3-pointers and jumped out to a 25-13 lead.

But Rice had little reason to fear Texas' hot start considering how last year's game went. The Owls went blow-for-blow with the Longhorns last season and made sure things would go similarly this time around. 

Rice made it a single-digit game as Texas went nearly five minutes without a field goal. A few thunderous helped swing momentum in the Owls' favor, as they cut the lead to four at 39-32 with 2:21 left in the first half.

Horton had a hot start, but it was Hunter who led all scorers at the half with 10 points on three made triples. Still, Rice trailed just 41-32. The Longhorns had a butterfingers problem in the first half with eight turnovers, as multiple Texas players had trouble corralling the ball. Rice got 11 points off these takeaways.

Texas put together an 8-2 run coming out of the locker room and made four 3s in the first seven minutes, which helped spark the Longhorns to a 59-41 lead.

Hunter exited back to the locker room right before the nine-minute mark of the second half but quickly returned. The energy in the Moody Center picked up after Longhorns big man Ze'Rik Onyema picked up a technical

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It seemed like the Owls might have one more run in them before the under-8 timeout, but the Longhorns stayed steady

The Longhorns will now take on the Louisville Cardinals in New York City on Sunday for their first game of the Empire Classic.