The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
5-4
Long Beach State
2-10
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long Beach State | 34 | 31 | 65 |
| Texas | 28 | 43 | 71 |
Men's Basketball rallies past Long Beach State, 71-65
12.10.2016 | Men's Basketball
Mack scores 16 of his team-high 18 points in second half to lead comeback victory.
AUSTIN, Texas – Sophomore guard/forward Tevin Mack scored 16 of his team-high 18 points in the second half to rally Texas past Long Beach State, 71-65, at the Frank Erwin Center on Saturday night. Fellow sophomore Eric Davis Jr. matched a season high with 16 points, including 10 in the second half. After the 49ers tied the game at 54 with 8:16 remaining, the sophomore duo scored Texas' final 17 points of the game to seal the win.
Texas (5-4) overcame a 12-point deficit for the second time in three games (last vs. Alabama) thanks to an explosive second half in which the Longhorns shot 53.8-percent from the field (14-26) and an impressive 84.6-percent from the free-throw line (11-of-13).
Long Beach State (2-10) was led by Evan Payne, who scored 26 points on 8-of-14 shooting from three-point range. The 26 points marked the highest total scored by an individual against the Longhorns this season. Justin Bibbins added nine points and a game-high seven assists and three steals.
Both teams traded baskets to open the first half, and a dunk from UT freshman guard Andrew Jones tied the game at 7-7 at the 15:05 mark. Long Beach State responded with a three from Bibbins and held a slim lead throughout much of the first half thanks to hot shooting from beyond the arc (6-of-12). An 8-0 run by the 49ers gave Long Beach State a 34-23 advantage with 1:37 remaining, but the Longhorns scored the final five points of the half to cut the 49ers' lead to 34-28 going into halftime.
Payne's hot shooting continued to open the second half, sinking two shots from beyond the arc to give the 49ers their largest lead of the game, 40-28, at the 17:52 mark. Texas responded with six quick points, including a jumper and a layup from senior Kendal Yancy, to trim the lead to 40-34 with 16:31 remaining.
Mack scored six straight points to pull Texas to within two (44-42) at the 13:04 mark. After each team swapped a pair of jumpers, Mack gave Texas its first lead since 15:45 in the first half with a three-pointer to put the Longhorns ahead 48-47 with 10:40 remaining.
Texas used a 12-2 run over a stretch of 3:26 to build a 61-54 lead, forcing Long Beach State to take a timeout at the 5:46 mark. It did not slow down Mack, as he sank another 3-pointer and a layup to give Texas its first double-digit lead of the night (68-58) with 2:35 remaining.
A three from Noah Blackwell brought the 49ers back within four with 21 seconds remaining, but Davis converted 5-of-6 from the charity stripe to seal the win for Texas.
The Longhorns will play in the Lone Star Shootout against Arkansas on Saturday, Dec. 17. Tip is set for 1:30 p.m. Central at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
Texas Basketball Postgame Notes
Texas 71, Long Beach State 65
December 10, 2016
Frank Erwin Center
Attendance: 10,173
Team Notes
- Texas improved to 6-3 in the all-time series against Long Beach State. The Horns have won the last three meetings in the series.
- The Longhorns improved to 482-113 all-time in home games at the Frank Erwin Center. The Horns improved to 210-30 at the Erwin Center in the last 15 seasons (since start of the 2002-03 season). Texas improved to 19-4 at home in the Shaka Smart era.
- UT posted a 43-31 scoring margin in the second half (after trailing 34-28 at the break). The Longhorns converted 53.8% FG shooting (14-26) in the final 20 minutes while holding the 49ers to 35.3% FG shooting (12-34).
- Texas converted 16-of-22 (.727) free throws, while Long Beach State hit just 6-of-7 from the stripe. The Horns connected on 11-of-13 (.846) free throws in the second half.
- UT posted a 30-20 advantage in bench scoring.
- Tied his UT career high in rebounds (8). He previously grabbed 8 boards at Oklahoma State (March 4, 2016).
- Reached double figures in scoring (16 points) for the third time this year (9 games) and 17th time in his career (42 games).
- His 16 points tied his season high (had 16 vs. Incarnate Word on Nov. 11 in the season opener) and was just 3 points shy of his career high (19 vs. Texas A&M on Nov. 25, 2015).
- Tied his career high in free throws made (5-of-6) and set a season high in 3-pointers made (3-of-7)
- Reached double figures in scoring (18 points) for the seventh time this year (8 games) and 12th time in his career (41 games).
- Set a career high in free throws made (6-of-8)
- Reached double figures in scoring (11 points) for the fourth time this year (9 games) and 17th time in his career (107 games).
- Set a season high in rebounds (5).
Texas Postgame Quotes
Texas Head Coach Shaka Smart
On sophomore guard Eric Davis Jr.'s improvement in the win: It's really important. We need all our guys. He really hadn't been himself in terms of playing, but also just mentally and just the look on his face. This was a major move in the right direction. I think the key is that he continues moving in the right direction. It's not a matter of 'being back.' It's a matter of continuing to grow. He's gotten a lot of extra work in the last few days. I think that's part of it. Sometimes the answer is just work, putting work in. He was in the gym earlier this morning getting a bunch of shots off. He attacked that and fortunately it paid off and he was able to make some shots tonight.
On the importance of a win against Long Beach State after losing four of the last five: It's big. A team comes in here with a record that didn't indicate how good they were, and we tried to make that point to our guys. But the reality is – I think for some of our guys, particularly our younger guys – I don't know if they heard that all the way. And then the game started and it was like, "Whoa, these guys are pretty good and these guys can make shots and [Long Beach State junior guard] Evan Payne is playing better than anyone on the floor." I give our guys a lot of credit for the way they responded. In the locker room at halftime they said a lot of the right things. But we have to put together more sustained stretches of max effort all the time and understanding what goes into being a good team on both ends.
On the contributions from the seniors on the team: I thought Kendal [Yancy] and Shaq [Cleare], they did what you want your seniors to do. They recognized we didn't have the aggressiveness we needed to have early in the game. In the first half, about midway through, they made a concerted effort to say, "Hey I want to lift my team's aggressiveness up." They did that. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't pretty. But I think our guys in the second half, once we had that initial tough stretch, really fed off of that.
On sophomore guard Tevin Mack's leadership when other teammates are struggling: I think overall we need to continue to understand how much we need each other. I just don't think we've fully figured that out yet. We need to move in that direction. We will be the best team we can be when we understand that that's only possible through each other. I'll tell you what Tevin did a great job of – he did this against Alabama and he did this tonight – is that in the first half he wasn't able to get much going offensively, but he didn't get down at all. It's funny, I praised him in the locker room for having a great response. I said, "Last year you wouldn't have been able to do that." And he said, "Well last year I wouldn't have gone back in." And he's right. What happens is, the better you're playing, the more leeway that you have as a player. But he's obviously given us a big lift. I thought when he got to the foul line it kind of got us going a little bit offensively and we were able to score more from there.
Texas Sophomore Guard Eric Davis Jr.
On the relief of having a breakout game like tonight: It feels pretty good to finally see the ball go in. All I can really say is I've been trusting in the process. I have to give props to Kendal and Tevin. Like I said, it's just about trusting my process and staying positive.
On how he maintains confidence: For me personally, that's just who I am. I stay confident all the time. I'm pretty sure everybody knows it at this point, but my teammates have been doing a really good job of staying with me and saying, "We're coming right to you. Keep shooting the ball." I give a lot of credit to my teammates. They've been staying with me. This group of guys is really special. I give all the credit to them for believing in me. It's a good feeling when you go out there and you have a group of guys who really believe in you.
On how his family has been providing support and playing home state of Michigan last week: I've talked to my mom a lot. It's kind of weird because in high school she didn't say too much, but in college she's been calling me saying, "What's going on? Play better." Just stuff like that. She says little things like, "Don't make me have to come down there." Stuff like that, just joking. My mom, just to hear her voice, see her is a good feeling, just to see friends and family. Just to go home and play in front of them in a college in a uniform at this level, it's a great opportunity and a really good feeling.
Texas Sophomore Guard/Forward Tevin Mack
On how nice it is to see Davis have success: It feels great. It's what we expected of Eric. He's one of our better players. He was in a little slump to start off, but he got out of it. He's kept with his process and getting shots up in the gym and working on it. He just kept his confidence and belief in himself. He knows we have his back as well, so he just played his game tonight and didn't give up.
On the win tonight: Any win is an important win for us at this point. We are looking to build from this and keep bringing energy the whole game, not just in the second half. We just have to keep working, keep getting better, and hopefully this can carry over for the next couple games or however long.
On the biggest difference from the first half to the second half: I feel like in the second half I just got more comfortable during the game. At the start of the game sometimes I get a lot of jitters and a lot of nerves out there. I just don't want to mess up. In the second half, we were down a little bit, so I realized I needed to make some plays for us to win. My teammates did a great job of making plays as well. We all shared the ball really well. We all just played great team ball, and we ended up getting a great team win.
Texas Senior Guard Kendal Yancy
On what he has been focusing on lately: Just trying to bring energy and focus on my teammates and take the pressure off myself. I want to have such a great season because it's my senior year, so I've been putting a little bit of pressure on myself. Focusing on my teammates and getting everyone around me better, good things are going to happen.
On how nice it was to see the young guys make some big shots: I'm really proud of these guys right here, but I see it every day in practice. They make the big shots in competition that we do in practice every day. I see the work they put in every day, so I'm used to it. These guys deserve it. They deserve the best.
Long Beach State Head Coach Dan Monson
Opening Statement: Obviously, I'm disappointed. We played this schedule to get better and I think we got better today, but this team needs to reward themselves with some wins and needs to get better at when they got people out of sync, to take advantage of it. We let them hang around and in the second half we just defensively got tired and just let them in the paint too much. They're a good basketball team and they capitalized on it, so we couldn't finish. I thought we fought pretty hard. I thought we competed but we've just got to get better.
On trying to contain Texas sophomore guard Tevin Mack: We knew he'd be aggressive and come out aggressive. We lost him a little bit. We were doubling down in the post but his guy was not supposed to be involved in the help in the post and somehow the biggest three made was in the corner where [Mack] was wide open coming out of a rotation and his guy wasn't supposed to be involved in the rotation. This team has struggled all year sustaining when they get tired. I told them, "We lost this game in practice." We really fight and do a lot of things mentally in the first hour of practice. The second hour, when we get tired, we do a lot of undisciplined things and I think that showed in the second half. We weren't nearly as disciplined. A good player like that, if you don't stay to the game plan they're going to burn you, and he sure did.
