Horns’ defense clamps down in blowout
AUSTIN — ArkansasPine Bluff has run up against a few fierce opponents this season.
The Golden Lions took No. 24 TCU to the wire in a one-point loss in their season opener, put a scare into Oklahoma, led Nebraska at halftime and got shellacked by No. 23 Mississippi State. But none of those teams, Pine Bluff coach Solomon Bozeman said Saturday, could throttle you with their defense quite like No. 2 Texas.
“We played TCU, we played Oklahoma, and we were right there with those teams that are in the Big 12,” Bozeman said. “But defensively, Texas is just different.”
Pine Bluff put up a good fight for the first 12 minutes of Saturday’s game against the Longhorns at the Moody Center. The rest of the game was a defensive masterclass by Texas (7-1), which clamped down to score an 88-43 win over the Golden Lions (3-8).
“I mean, they deny, they take stuff away and they can use their length,” Bozeman said. “And then what really hurt us is when they started switching and they could just stay in front and keep our guard in front. And then we couldn’t even get post touches when we wanted to try to go inside because they were taking away those passes. They kind of just took our whole game plan away.”
The Golden Lions offered some real resistance early on, splashing three 3-pointers to take a 13-11 lead into the first media timeout.
Texas was scoring just fine. Freshman forward Dillon Mitchell was hammering dunks off baseline cuts and transition leakouts. Senior wing Brock Cunningham was burying triples. Senior big Christian Bishop brought some punch off the bench, tormenting Pine Bluff with an array of post scores and second-chance buckets.
But with 8:42 left in the first half, the Longhorns led by one.
Then Pine Bluff ’s starters began wearing down, fatigued by the full-court pressure Texas coach Chris Beard dialed up. And its bench was outclassed in every fashion. This was the beginning of the end for Bozeman’s proud-but-outgunned bunch.
Texas closed the half on a 19-6 run. It forced seven turnovers during that game-breaking span as Bishop and Cunningham combined for 23 points off the bench.
“We were just sitting on the bench watching the whole thing go down,” Bishop said after scoring a game-high 16 points with nine rebounds and four assists. “And when we got in there we were like, the team’s gotta get better when we get in the game. And that’s exactly what we did. We took advantage of the moment and me and Brock were able to get it going.”
Texas kept its foot on the gas in the second half, perhaps unleashing some lingering frustration from Tuesday’s overtime loss to No. 17 Illinois in New York City.
Pine Bluff shot just 19.2 percent in the second half and finished with more than twice as many turnovers (11) as made field goals (five). While the Golden Lions unraveled, Texas pushed its lead to 20, then 30, then 40 with a 21-0 run.
Eight different Longhorns scored during that stretch. Even seldom-used freshman wing Alex Anamekwe received some substantial run, sending home a dunk and hitting his first career 3 as the lead ballooned.
Anamekwe matched his career high with five points. Cunningham finished with a career-high 13 points on 5-for-5 shooting. Mitchell added 13 points on 6 of 7 in 20 minutes. Senior forward Timmy Allen chipped in with seven rebounds and a team-high six assists, part of a 23-assist night for Texas.
With eight games in the books, Texas now ranks third nationally in defensive efficiency (86.3 points per 100 possessions) and 11th in points allowed per game (57.4). And after hearing of Bozeman’s praise, Beard offered a vigorous nod.
“We’re a defensive program,” Beard said. “It’s our identity. It’s what we try to do. Because we want to win. Anybody that wins (a national title) is a defensive program. So when someone we respect like Solomon says something about us, we listen. And we appreciate him saying that because we do work hard.”