AUSTIN, Texas — Stuck with a three-game losing streak and a 12-point halftime deficit, the Texas men’s basketball team finally emerged from its inertia Friday night.
Texas defended with more intensity, shot with increased accuracy and scored 51 points in the second half to beat Alabama 77-68 at the Frank Erwin Center.
“The first five minutes of the second half, they came out with a different type of energy and focus,” Alabama coach Avery Johnson said. “It seemed like they were a step quicker. Give them credit. This is a team that lost three games in a row. They were desperate.”
Kerwin Roach scored 16 points for Texas (4-3). Tevin Mack, Shaq Cleare, Jacob Young, and Jarrett Allen had 11 points for the Longhorns, who used a 15-5 run in the final 3 minutes, 39 seconds to seal the victory.
Dazon Ingram led Alabama (4-3) with 12 points and had Avery Johnson Jr. had 10.
The Longhorns, bolstered by full-court pressure defense in the second half, persisted until they took their first lead of the game, on a 3-point play by Roach with 12:47 remaining.
Neither team led by more than four until Roach made a free throw with 1:02 left for a 68-63 lead.
Corban Collins, an Alabama graduate transfer from Morehead State, made three 3-pointers in the first half to help Alabama take a 38-26 halftime lead. Before Friday, Collins had seven 3-pointers in six games.
“We didn’t respond (in the second half) and consequently they were the fresher team in the second half, they seemed like they were a step quicker. They were locked in. We didn’t seem to execute as well, had to burn a couple of timeouts to settle our team down and unfortunately didn’t have any there at the end.”
Mack, making his first start of the season, scored all 11 of his points in the second half, one more than Roach.
“This is a little glimpse of what we can really be like if we continue to work hard,” Cleare said. “When we lost those games these guys were really crushed. The last two days of practice were really intense. We knew we were gonna win this game, even if we were down by 15, 16 points.”
Alabama will play Oregon at 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11, (ESPNU) in Eugene, Oregon.
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