Texas held visiting Kansas City without a made 3-pointer until the closing minutes to highlight an overwhelming defensive effort in the Longhorns’ 71-55 win Saturday in Austin.
Texas (3-1) limited Kansas City (1-3) to 37.5% shooting from the overall at 24-of-64, including 1-for-13 from beyond the arc, compensating for the Longhorns’ own struggles shooting the ball.
Over a cold spell in the second half, Texas managed just five points over more than four minutes, and went more than six minutes between made field goals. The Longhorns finished just 25-of-63 from the field, including 4-of-20 from long distance.
Despite Texas struggling to score, the Roos failed to find their own scoring touch enough over that stretch to capitalize, only pulling to within eight points.
Texas built on the cushion and effectively put the game to bed with a 12-0 run, capped on Jordan Pope’s jumper with 4:25 remaining that pushed the Longhorns lead to 20 points.
His contribution to the run marked Pope’s only points on an afternoon reflective of the overall Texas shooting woes, as he went 1-of-11 from the floor. Matas Vokietaitis, who scored 12 points, shot 3-of-7 from the field but a woeful 6-of-12 at the free-throw line.
Texas went just 17-of-28 at the charity stripe, missing three more times than Kansas City generated total attempts. The Roos were 6-of-8 at the foul line.
Dailyn Swain, the Longhorns leading scorer with 13 points, made his one free-throw attempt and went 6-of-9 from the field.
Kansas City’s CJ Evans led all scorers with 17 points and broke the Roos’ 3-point drought, his triple coming almost 39 minutes into the contest. Evans was the only Roo to dish more than one assist, finishing with three.
Chendall Weaver, who scored all five of his points off the bench on free throws, distributed four assists for Texas. Vokietaitis led all rebounders with eight.
