Texas (No.11) played like an elite, championship-caliber team in Wednesday’s 93-74 blowout of the second-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs.
The win shows the improvement the Longhorns have made from last fall’s blowout loss on the road to then-No. 1 Gonzaga.
This time Texas (3-0) had the advantage of an electric, beyond-capacity home Moody Center crowd behind them.
Multiple Longhorns had solid offensive performances against Gonzaga, with four Texas players scoring at least 10 points each. Iowa State transfer Tyrese Hunter, last year’s Big 12 Freshman of the Year, notched a career-high of 26 points and made five of Texas’ 13 three-pointers.
“Big shout-out to my teammates for finding me. I don’t think I got one of them off the dribble,” Hunter said.
Marcus Carr added 16, and Dylan Disu (12 points) and Sir’Jabari Rice (11 points) also scored in the double digits.
The Longhorns shot 51.5% from the field and 39.4% from three-point range in 40 minutes of largely uncompetitive basketball. Texas was 3-of-22 from long range in its previous game against Houston Christian.
Texas fell behind in the game’s opening minutes, trailing by as many as seven points, but it dug itself out of the hole on the strength of a ferocious defensive effort that forced Gonzaga (3-1) to commit 20 turnovers.
The Longhorns also shut down Richardson native and AP preseason All-American selection Drew Timme, limiting him to only 18 points after he gashed Texas for 37 points in last season’s meeting.
Texas held Gonzaga to one made basket over the final five minutes of the first half and turned a tight game into a 10-point halftime lead boosted by a rare scoring burst from defensive specialist Brock Cunningham.
He made a three-pointer and a reverse layup before stealing a pass intended for Timme that he converted into a layup that made it 47-37.
Texas broke it open with a flurry of three-pointers to start the second half. Hunter struck first, then Disu was left wide open for another. Hunter then made two more before converting a three-point play on a steal and layup that pushed the Texas lead to 20.
“[Texas is] a really, really, really good team,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said postgame. “They’re old. Their guards (Marcus Carr and Tyrese Hunter] are terrific. They can both handle it. It’s always great when you have two-point guards like that who can shoot. They’re athletic enough to switch ball screens. And so, yeah, they’re the real deal.”
Texas’ 19-point victory over Gonzaga is more impressive, considering the Bulldogs were five days removed from beating a Michigan State team that subsequently beat a No.4 Kentucky team predicted to win the SEC.
That, combined with the fact that the Longhorns won their first two games by an average of 33 points, could indicate what’s to come for Texas this basketball season.
“I’m pretty sure a lot of people were watching the game, saw who we are and what we’re about,” Hunter said.
The win was also Texas’ head coach Chris Beard’s third win over a Top 2 team. The only other coach to achieve this in the last five seasons is legendary former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Numbers aside, Texas survived its first test of the season, but many more tests will come in the Big 12 conference. The Longhorns’ win over the Bulldogs was the Big 12′s second top-10 win in two days.
The defending champions, No.6 Kansas, beat No. 7 Duke on Tuesday night in Indianapolis, 69-64. Although Big 12 play does not begin until New Year’s Eve, the early dominance of multiple Big 12 teams indicates it again will be the most competitive basketball conference.
