Freshman Tre Johnson poured in 18 points in just 22 minutes of play, lifting Texas to a 77-53 win over Northwestern State on Sunday afternoon in Austin, Texas.
The Longhorns (11-2) won their fourth straight outing as Johnson returned from a two-game absence due to a sore right hip. He finished 7 of 11 from the floor with four 3-pointers, leading the way as Texas held the Demons to 30 percent shooting in the first half while building a 19-point lead.
The Longhorns stretched the advantage to 56-26 on a dunk by Chendall Weaver with 13:50 to play.
Texas had more than enough to cruise to the finish and is in fine shape in advance of its first run in Southeastern Conference play. The Longhorns play at rival 13th-ranked Texas A&M in the teams’ league opener on Saturday.
Jordan Pope added 11 points and Arthur Kaluma recorded 13 rebounds for Texas. None of the Longhorns’ starters played more than 28 minutes.
Micah Thomas scored 19 points, including 16 in the second half, and Addison Patterson had 18 points for the Demons (5-7).
The Longhorns made an early bid to bury Northwestern State by scoring the game’s initial eight points over the first 3:15 of the first half. The Demons responded with an 11-4 run, capped by a layup by Patterson at the 10:15 mark that cut the deficit to 12-11.
Texas then reeled off a 18-4 surge that featured a pair of tough running jumpers and two 3-pointer from Johnson, the latter with 4:02 to play in the half that pushed the lead to 30-15.
The Longhorns got a bucket and a 3-pointer from Pope before finishing the half with two free throws and a dunk by Ze’Rik Onyema off a nifty assist by Julian Larry to produce a 41-22 lead at the break.
Johnson paced the Longhorns with 10 points before halftime as Texas outshot the Demons 62.5 percent to 30 percent over the first 20 minutes of play. Patterson led all scorers with 12 points in the half, making five shots while the rest of the participants for Northwestern State made four combined.
The Longhorns opened the second half by scoring the first eight points on jumper and then a 3-pointer by Johnson and a 3-pointer by Kaluma.
–Field Level Media
