The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
1-1
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
1-2
Men's Basketball wins home opener over Islanders, 67-56
11.21.2015 | Men's Basketball
Head coach Shaka Smart earns first win as coach of Longhorns.
AUSTIN, Texas – Shaka Smart earned his first win as the head coach of the Texas Longhorns with a 67-56 victory against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the team's home opener on Saturday night at the Frank Erwin Center.
Cameron Ridley led the way for Texas (1-1) by recording his 14th career double-double, scoring a game-high 14 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, tying his career high. Javan Felix posted 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting from three-point range, while Connor Lammert added 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots.
Bryce Douvier led the way for the Islanders (1-2), scoring 14 points and recording a team-high nine rebounds. The Islanders were held to 25-percent shooting from the floor (18-of=72) and 28.6-percent from behind the arc (8-of-28).
After a slow start to the first half, the Longhorns emerged from the first media timeout by going on a 10-0 run sparked by back-to-back 3-pointers from Felix. Ridley led all Texas scorers with seven points and a team-high six rebounds in the first half, leading the Longhorns to a 37-28 advantage at the break.
Both teams were held scoreless to start the second half until Isaiah Taylor opened the scoring at 15:51 with a layup to extend the Longhorns' lead to 39-28. The Islanders were persistent and cut Texas' lead to as little as five with 11:19 remaining the half following a layup from Ehab Amin.
Lammert came alive for the Longhorns at the right time, scoring the team's next nine points, including a pair of 3-pointers, to extend the Texas lead to 52-43 at the 11:00 mark. Felix extended the team's lead to double digits after knocking down another pair of 3-pointers to put the Longhorns on top 58-47 with 6:39 remaining.
The Texas defense was able to hold off Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for the remainder of the contest, limiting the Islanders to 2-of-13 shooting from the floor in the closing minutes of the game.
Texas shot 40.4-percent from the field (23-of-57), including a 40-percent (8-of-20) mark from beyond the arc. The Islanders forced 18 turnovers and stole the ball 10 times, but the Longhorns owned the advantage in points off turnovers by a margin of 13-11.
Texas has now won 14 straight home openers following tonight's win. The Horns are 34-5 in home openers since the Frank Erwin Center opened prior to the 1977-78 season.
The Longhorns will travel to The Bahamas to face Texas A&M on Wednesday, Nov. 25 in the quarterfinal round of the Battle 4 Atlantis. Tip is set for 6 p.m. Central at Atlantis, and the game will be televised nationally by AXS TV.
Texas Basketball Postgame Notes
Texas 67, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 56
November 21, 2015
Frank Erwin Center
Attendance: 11,315
Team Notes
- The game marked the first home game and win for head coach Shaka Smart at Texas. Smart is the 24th head men's basketball coach in UT program history.
- Texas starters: G Isaiah Taylor, G Demarcus Holland, G Kendal Yancy, F Connor Lammert and C Cameron Ridley. Texas is 1-0 when starting with this lineup this season.
- Texas now leads the all-time series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4-0
- The Longhorns shot 8-of-20 from 3-point range tonight after going 2-of-15 in the season opener against Washington in China.
- Posted a 25-8 advantage in fast-break points
- Ten of the 11 players who saw action scored for the Longhorns.
- Reached double figures in scoring (12 points) for the 44th time in his career (101 games)
- Converted 4-of-4 from three-point range on the night
- Reached double figures in scoring (12 points) for the 13th time in his career (105 games).
- Pulled down nine rebounds and tied a career high with three blocks
- Posted his 14th career double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds (tied a career high in rebounds)
- Reached double figures in scoring for the 33rd time in his career (104 games).
- Reached double figures in rebounds for the 21st time in his career
- Had eight assists (just two shy of his career high) against just three turnovers
Postgame Quotes
Texas 67, Texas A&M CC 56
Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015
Texas Quotes
Head Coach Shaka Smart
On how you feel about your first career win at UT: First of all, it's good to get on the court with our guys and be on our home floor and get a win. That's obviously the goal any time you take the court. But in addition to that, I'm proud of our guys for this week in practice and to some extent tonight. We were taking a small step tonight, but we have to keep growing as a team and keep improving. There are a lot of things that we need to keep getting better at, but I think our guys know that. We are going to keep working.
On Cameron Ridley so far this season: He is a talented player. I think he can do even more to be honest with you. I thought he did some really good things tonight. One of the biggest keys with Cam is keeping him on the floor. He got some fouls last time out against Washington, so that really limited his playing time. And then when you are out there in foul trouble, it's hard to be as aggressive as you want to be. For the most part, he was able to play without that worry tonight, although down the stretch he had four fouls. He's a good player and we want to get him the ball as much as we can. We set a goal as a team to get a certain number of post touches each half going into this game, and the guys executed and got the ball inside.
On Prince Ibeh, Shaq Cleare and Ridley being the key to unlocking everything else: Well it's an important component, but I don't know if it's first. I think the first thing is getting our guys really connected around a process. There are a hundred things that go into that, but there are things that we have practiced now for seven weeks, and we'll continue to practice them and get better at them. Early in the season, you watch college basketball and you see some teams that are playing at a high level, but you also see a lot of teams that are a work in progress and we're one of those teams. I told someone today that our guys are playing with a completely new operating system and that operating system is just different. For the older guys it's different, and for the younger guys they have that in addition to the fact that they are new to college basketball. So we have to keep making that adjustment. Obviously, we go up in weight class in terms of the competition next week with not only the A&M game, but the whole tournament. I think our guys understand that we are going to have to continue to get better and better if we want to win those games.
Texas Senior Guard Javan Felix
On shooting a lot of threes: I know we're going to shoot the ball when we're open. That's something we're definitely going to do. I don't know if we're going to shoot more threes as the season goes on, but when we're open, we're going to let them fly.
On importance of experience on young team: Experience is going to be really key. We've been doing what we can so far to help the freshmen along, because we know that we're going to need them. It's about them getting as much experience as they can in games like this and playing a lot in the Washington game, just to get their feet under them and understand that it's different. It's very important. Us as upperclassmen, we're going to do what we can to gain even more experience, so that we can better our season because that's the ultimate goal.
Texas Senior Center Cameron Ridley
On getting more touches: My teammates definitely looked in for me and the rest of the big men. One of our goals coming into the game was to get us more touches, because we have a size advantage. I appreciate all the guards looking for us. They could've played for themselves.
On running the floor in this style of play: I know that anything can happen when they shoot a layup. That's just what Coach Smart wants, so that's what I'm going to do.
Texas Senior Forward Connor Lammert
On role in offense playing inside and out: I'm just trying to get these guys open shots if I don't have a shot. We did have a focus this game of trying to get the ball inside a lot. They were battling so much on the big guys and after you get into them, we have an 'A-cut' and it really frees up a lot of shooters. In terms of my role, if they come at me I'll take a dribble and try to get the next pass in. Usually it can lead to something good and get people open. I'm just there to hit the open shot and attack when I need to, but I personally like getting guys involved.
On Coach Smart's first win at Texas: It's awesome. Javan had a nice gesture. He got the game ball in the locker room after Coach was done talking. He presented him [Coach Smart] with it, and we all tackled him and roughed him up a little bit. It's something he's definitely going to remember, the team's going to remember, the University's going to remember for a while. It was a special night for him and the rest of the staff and his family.
Texas A&M Corpus Christi Quotes
Head Coach Willis Wilson
Opening Statement: The first thing that comes to mind for me is missed layups. The good news is we didn't allow our offense, or our lack thereof at times, affect our defense. I thought our defense was good enough to win tonight. The big thing for us is that we need to figure out how to execute in these types of games. It is a physical game. The referees are cleaning it up some and I think that plays to our advantage a little bit. We need to learn how to take advantage of some opportunities. We had some point blank shots tonight that really make the game different. We let those opportunities slip away.
On Texas playing after a trip to China: The reality is the kids are resilient. I have had the team travel all over the world to play basketball and win, get off the bus and win. I think the Longhorns represented themselves well tonight. They came off a long trip. They played their brand of basketball. One of the things that we pointed out in the locker room is that they would be able to do what they did for forty minutes. We had some gaps and I think that's what made the difference for us tonight.
On the better start opposed to Thursday night's game: We shouldn't be a team that has bad starts. It's going to take a little separation for me to really figure that out. I have some suspicions about it, but at the end of the day, we have even better guys on the floor to have better starts. I thought our energy was down the other night. We had some calls go against us early, and we didn't recover well, but I know tonight we played some situations. There were some situations where we didn't score with the basketball and take advantage of the opportunities, but the defense held up. The defense held Texas to the same route. Where we really hit ourselves is when you don't produce enough layups. They are like atomic bombs. You can't defend it. There is no way to get back and build defense. And that's were Texas is really good.
