No. 12 Texas vs. Houston Christian live updates: Horns lead 39-12 at halftime

Nov 11, 2022 - 2:53 AM

The No. 12 Texas Longhorns are back at the Moody Center for another midweek matchup, this time against the Houston Christian Huskies as head coach Chris Beard’s team prepares for a big-time tilt against the No. 2 Gonzaga Bulldogs next week in Austin.

---

Starting lineup

• Sophomore guard Tyrese Hunter
• Senior guard Marcus Carr
• Senior forward Timmy Allen
• Freshman forward Dillon Mitchell
• Senior forward Dylan Disu

---

Within the first two minutes, the Longhorns forced a timeout by the Huskies after a 6-0 start that included four offensive rebounds and a fast-break dunk thrown down by Mitchell on a lob from Carr.

When Texas came out of the break with another offensive rebound, they’d secured all five of their misses. During that stretch, Houston Christian only managed one shot while turning the ball over four times.

By the under-16 timeout, Texas led 14-0 after a shot-clock violation during which Houston Christian was only barely able to get into its offense as the turnovers jumped to six, including four steals by the Horns, with four misses. Texas turned those turnovers into eight points and scored 12 of its first 14 in the paint.

It wasn’t until the 13:17 mark that the Huskies scored their first basket after missing their first six shots — at the next television timeout, the margin was 18-2. The most impressive highlight of the first 10-plus minutes of playing time came when Mitchell cut baseline, caught a bounce pass from Hunter, and dunked over two defenders, part of a 6-0 run by the Longhorns to take a 24-4 lead at the under-eight timeout.

A putback by Mitchell with 7:26 remaining was his seventh offensive rebound, one more than the total by Houston Christian (seven). An appearance by Texas walk-on Gavin Perryman ahead of the under-four timeout marked the start of extended garbage time. And while the Horns led 31-10 at that point, they’d also missed their first 11 three-point attempts and turned the ball over seven times — hardly an ideal start given questions about the team’s shooting ability from distance.

Texas finished the half with a 7-0 run, including a layup by Hunter just before the buzzer, to take a 39-12 lead into the halftime break. Hitting a three-point shot still hadn’t happened, but the Horns did have a 19-2 advantage in points off turnovers, a 30-6 advantage in points in the paint, and a 13-0 advantage in fast-break points.