Longhorns pull away late, set up Penn State date
DES MOINES, Iowa — When the update flashed on Tyrese Hunter’s phone, he had one immediate thought: That’s not going to be us.
So the Texas sophomore grabbed a screenshot of the final score from 15th-seeded Princeton’s upset of second-seeded Arizona Thursday afternoon and sent it to the team’s group chat with a word of warning attached.
“We can’t play with fire, guys,” Hunter wrote.
The Longhorns’ feet might have gotten just a little toasty Thursday night against a Colgate team that didn’t seem to have any quit in it. But in the end, they didn’t succumb to the same fate as poor Arizona.
No. 2 seed Texas finally outran No. 15 Colgate down the closing stretch of an 81-61 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena. The Longhorns (27-8) will play No. 10 seed Penn State Saturday in the second round.
“We weren’t taking them lightly at all,” Marcus Carr said of the three-time defending Patriot League tournament champion Raiders (26-9). “Every single guy that walked on the court today had a game plan, the coaches had us prepared, and we executed.”
Boy, did they execute. Especially after shaking off the typical first-round jitters and acclimating to a crowd that showered Texas in boos with every single touch, the most venomous of which were reserved for Hunter, who transferred to Texas from Iowa State.
Texas found an effective way to muzzle those Colgate fans and the various underdog hangerson populating the arena. And it had Raiders coach Matt Langel to thank for his position of choosing.
With Colgate constricting its defense to pack the paint and take away dribble drives and post ups, the Longhorns decided to let it fly from behind the arc. And Langel’s plan backfired in spectacular fashion.
The Longhorns hit 8 of 10 from deep to start, with guard Sir’Jabari Rice accounting for five alone. At one point, Carr mimed blowing out a flaming shooting hand after he sank another longrange trey to put Texas ahead 3518 with seven minutes left in the first half.
Rice finished with a gamehigh 23 points and set a careerhigh with seven 3s, one shy of the program’s tournament record set by A.J. Abrams in a 2009 first-round game.
But Colgate, playing in its fourth straight NCAA Tournament, wouldn’t wilt. It found some success inside with its bigs, funneling the ball to burly 6foot-11 backup Jeff Woodward in a few mismatch situations for easy finishes at the rim. By halftime, Texas’ lead had been trimmed to nine and the upsetcrazed crowd had roared back to life.
“To have the crowd chanting ‘Colgate,’ I think it was a testament to the resolve of our players, their commitment, their fight, to kinda keep fighting to hope that we could get it to single digits,” Langel said. “We got where we needed to be amid the circumstances. But they’ve (Texas) been through a lot as a team. They’re veteran guys. And I was really impressed with their resolve and their togetherness.”
Texas seemed ready to slam the door shut on Colgate’s upset bid for good about eight minutes into the second half.
Carr (17 points) canned a stepback 3. Rice rose up for his seventh triple. Senior forward Christian Bishop levitated to slam a lob from Hunter. And the Longhorns’ lead was back to 17.
But again, Colgate dug in and made a push and cut the gap to nine with 7:58 remaining.
And that wasn’t exactly a surprise. This was a team that returned three starters and 10 letterman from a group that led third-seeded Wisconsin late in the second half of last year’s first round before losing by seven. This was a team that owned the nation’s best 3-point percentage and second-best field goal percentage, one that had only lost once in its previous 21 outings.
Then again, Texas is one of the oldest teams in the nation. It just waxed Kansas in last year’s Big 12 tournament championship game and owned more NCAA NET Quadrant I wins than every team but the Jayhawks. So when interim coach Rodney Terry called timeout, there wasn’t a hint of panic suffusing the huddle.
“We were very tight,” Rice said. “Nobody separated. Nobody yelled at each other. We all re-centered ourselves and refocused and just took a deep breath.”