Tyrese Hunter poured in a career-high 30 points to lead a torrid Texas offensive attack as the Longhorns rolled to a 94-80 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon in the teams’ final regular-season Big 12 game in Austin, Texas.
The Longhorns (20-11, 9-9 Big 12) never trailed in beating Oklahoma for the seventh straight time and eighth time in the past nine meetings between the rivals. Texas led by five points at halftime and expanded its advantage to 21 points after a Max Abmas layup with 8:32 to play and rolled to the wire.
Dylan Disu, who was a game-time decision to play because of a sprained left knee, added 16 points while Dillon Mitchell hit for 14 and Max Abmas scored 11 for the Longhorns. Texas shot 63.5 percent from the floor, made 22 of 23 free throws and forged a 50-34 edge in points in the paint.
Rivaldo Soares’ 21 points led the Sooners, with Jalon Moore scoring 16, Milos Uzan hitting for 12 and Le’Tre Darthard tallying 10. Oklahoma (20-11, 8-10) had dropped three of its past four games.
The Longhorns dominated the game’s first 11 minutes, jumping to the front from the tipoff and building a 18-10 advantage after a dunk by Dillon Mitchell at the 9:19 mark of the first half. Oklahoma swung back, forging a 10-2 run to tie it at 20 when Soares hit a layup with 6:29 left in the half.
Texas answered, sprinting away from a one-point lead with 4:30 to play before halftime as Disu made a pair of free throws and Hunter and Chendall Weaver each had layups, with the latter pushing the margin to 33-26 with 2:35 remaining.
The Longhorns matched their largest lead of the half on Weaver’s three-point play with 36 seconds left before Gavin McCollum canned a 3-pointer with 12 seconds remaining to bring Oklahoma to within 40-35 at the break.
Disu led Texas with 12 points before halftime while Soares matched his total by scoring a dozen for the Sooners. The Longhorns outshot Oklahoma 53.8 percent to 41.4 percent in the initial 20 minutes of play.
Texas opened up the game over the first 4 1/2 minutes of the second half, scoring 16 of the first 21 points after halftime to build a 56-40 lead after Hunter’s 3-pointer with 15:20 remaining.
–Field Level Media