The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas State
Men's Basketball Defeats Texas State, 86-52
12.10.2011 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2011
Box Score | | Box Score 
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Julien Lewis scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half to help Texas defeat Texas State 84-52 Saturday night.
Sheldon McClellan and Myck Kabongo each scored 13 as Texas (7-2) won its fifth straight game.
Eddie Rios had 11 points for Texas State.
Texas is 40-5 all-time against Texas State and has not lost since 1937.
Texas scored 14 straight points in the first half as part of a 26-4 run and held Texas State (6-3) without a field goal for over 14 minutes to go up 29-10.
Texas State shot 14 percent from the field in the opening half (3 of 22) and trailed 38-19 at halftime.
Texas opened the second half with six 3-pointers, including three from Lewis, to increase its advantage to 56-26 within four minutes.
POSTGAME NOTES
TEAM
- Texas improved to 41-5 in its series with Texas State. UT has won 23 consecutive games against the Bobcats.
- Texas improved to 98-9 (.916) at the Erwin Center in the last seven seasons [dating back to the start of the 2005-06 season] and 188-24 (.887) at the Erwin Center under Rick Barnes.
- Texas has held 221 of its 454 opponents to under 40% field-goal shooting in the Rick Barnes era. UT sports a 202-19 (.914) mark in the Barnes era when accomplishing the feat.
- Texas has held its last five opponents to an average of 54.0 points per game; its last five opponents have shot 32.1% from the field (94-of-293), including a 31-of-98 (.316) from three-point range.
- Texas improves to 115-15 (.884) against in-state opponents during the Rick Barnes era.
- Five Longhorns scored in double figures, marking the fourth game the feat has occurred this season.
- Texas held Texas State without a field goal for a 14:20 span (16:34 to 2:14) in the first half
- Texas held Texas State to 3-of-22 (.136) FG shooting in the opening half; the three FG made ties a UT record for fewest field goals allowed in a half. It is the fourth time (since 1965-66 when records in half start) that UT has allowed just three FG in a half (last time: Ark-Monticello on Nov. 18, 2007).
- The 13.6% FG percentage allowed in the first half marks the second-lowest FG percentage mark in a half by a UT opponent. The record is 9.1% (3-of-33) by Ark-Monticello on Nov. 18, 2007.
- The Bobcats entered the game averaging 87.5 ppg while shooting 46.9% from the field and 40% from three-point range; Texas held Texas State to 52 points while limiting the Bobcats to 25.9% from the field (15-of-58) and 31.8% from three-point range (7-of-22)
- With Julien Lewis leading the Horns with 19 points, Texas has had a different leading scorer in each of its last five games.
- Texas shot a season-best 56.3% (27-of-48) from the field and a season-best 50.0% (9-of-18) from three-point range
INDIVIDUAL
- Reached double figures in scoring (11 pts.) for the eighth time in nine games and the 41st game out of 78 career games played
- Scored a career-high nine points, added career highs in rebounds (four) and free throws (seven)
- Reached double figures in scoring for the sixth time this season, totaled 13 points
- Has posted a 29-to-12 assist-to-turnover ratio in his last four games
- Has recorded seven assists or more in six of nine games this season
- Scored a career-high 19 points while adding career highs in three-point field goals (five), assists (three) and free throws (two)
- Reached double figures in scoring for the sixth time this season
- Reached double figures in scoring for the sixth time this season, totaled 13 points
- Reached double figures in scoring for the fourth time this season, totaled 11 points
TEXAS COACH QUOTES
HEAD COACH Rick Barnes
On opponents using zone-defense against Texas: Sometimes people will do it to try to force you into shooting a lot of shots. They came out to it (zone) to try to change some things up. We got pretty good looks at it. I thought the start of the game, of all the games we've played this year, the first half looked the most like a Texas team defensively than at any point this year. We really played great position defense. We did a much better job with ball-screen defense. We blocked out and guarded the ball for a couple of dribbles as opposed to getting beat off of one dribble. When you guard the ball for two dribbles, that third dribble you should have help-defense. And our help-defense was able to get there for the most part. We didn't sustain it in the second half. We came out with a lead, and that's where we've got to get tougher and get more leadership. Offensively, I kept telling the guys in the first half, "For as hard as you guys are playing on defense, I don't know why you wouldn't want to go down and do that on offense." Because every time we executed what we were trying to do, we got something. But, we get too excited.
On the team's improvement on defense: We've been working on it a lot. We've spent a lot of time the last couple of days really getting back to it. We've been trying to figure out, as a coaching staff, how we wanted to defend the ball-screen. We're going to do it this way. This is what we've done and we're going to go back to where we help a little bit. Very few guys in college get guys into the screen. Half the guys that come up and set ball-screens only set them. They come and leave. But we were anticipating the ball screen and giving up straight-line drives to the basket. I said, "Guard your man. When you get screened, get your body into him. Get over the top. Help a little." And we did that. We were just trying to get angles. Tonight, we did a much better job. I thought [freshman guard] Myck [Kabongo] was really good early, defensively. I thought he was really good. I thought everybody was. The help-defense was there. We took some charges early. I thought we had a couple that could have gone either way. When you stay in front of the ball you rebound better.
On freshman guard Julien Lewis' career-high game: Julien has really worked hard. He's wanted to do the right thing all along. And he's learning more and more about the game. The last couple of days you could just tell his focus was on in practice. He's really getting into watching the tape. He and I stayed here last night after everybody had left and watched a little tape, just talked basketball. You can tell he really wants to do this. He's very explosive, and he is learning how to slow himself down.
TEXAS PLAYER QUOTES
SENIOR FORWARD Alexis Wangmene
On playing better defensively: I thought the first half was the first time we've played Texas defense. We're getting there. We've been working on defense, and that's something we're trying to improve upon for the upcoming games. Everybody is getting better, and everybody is buying into it. The energy was great. We just have to keep doing the same work.
On starting the game with greater energy:[Assistant] coach (Russ) Springmann told me to be aggressive offensively. Either I would get fouled or I would make the basket. I just have to be confident every time when I get the ball down on the low block. That's what I try to do every day now. As far as the energy goes, it's just something I have to bring every day. I realize how important it is to the team to start a game like that. That's something I'm looking to do every night.
On building on tonight's defensive performance:We just have to learn from our mistakes. There is only room for improvement. We're very young and everybody has talent. If we put A and B together, we're going to have the result that we want. Everybody just has to come every night with the mindset of "I'm going to play defense today." That's what ultimately will lead us to a great defensive [performance].
FRESHMAN GUARD Julien Lewis
On his success tonight:[It was] my teammates, my coach telling me what to do out there, telling me to be aggressive. My teammates were getting me the ball and making sure I got shots. I just converted them. It was really special playing against the zone. Most of all, it was my teammates. We look for each other out there, and I just happened to be open at the time. I was knocking the shots down.
On his career shooting night:When I saw myself out there running around getting myself going, I thought, "Oh yeah, it's my time. It's my time to hit these big shots." In college basketball, you never get that many wide open shots like that because there are always good teams who play aggressive defense. But today, it just happened to be that everywhere I went, I was open. I was just so excited that I was knocking down the shots. I just felt good hitting the three today.
TEXAS STATE QUOTES
HEAD COACH DOUG DAVALOS
Opening statement: When you play Texas, you expect to see a good defensive team, but you can't help them out my shooting contested shoots. You have to be confident in finding an open teammate. Texas is a very good `help' team. What we were trying to do was exploit the helper, to make that extra pass. We did not do that enough tonight. The thing that is really disappointing to me is (our) six assists. You are not going to beat a team like Texas with guys trying to play one-on-five. They are too good of a team. I was disappointed in the second half when the game was out of reach. You saw guys playing a lot more confidently. You saw guys trying, but it is a big difference when you do that in a game. Texas always gets credit for playing good defense. Tonight, we had to shoot some good shots. I just wish we had a little bit better ball movement and player movement.
On Texas' zone defense: We try not to play a whole lot of zone but we were having a lot of trouble guarding them off their curl-cuts off of screens. We were just trying to combat it a little bit to make things tougher for them. With the zone they overloaded us so much that we did not do a good job of pressuring the basketball.
