Texas basketball pounds Colorado State in March Madness, advances in NCAA Tournament
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Who says Texas is too reliant on its two All-Big 12 players Max Abmas and Dylan Disu?
Despite Texas’ two stars struggling for much of the game, the No. 7-seeded Longhorns held on for a 56-44 win over Colorado State in a first-round NCAA Tournament game Thursday at Spectrum Center.
It took a team effort to advance to the second round for the third consecutive season. More specifically, it took a total team defensive effort in the Longhorns’ lowest-scoring game of the season. Texas’ previous low of 61 points came in a loss at Houston in February.
"Our role players came in and played terrific for us," Texas coach Rodney Terry said. "Give credit to Max and Dylan because they've kind of carried us all year, and they kept working tonight and finished the game the right way. But when you can have the other guys step up like tonight, that's big."
Max Abmas' 3-pointer gave a halftime cushion
The duo of Abmas and Disu, which averages a combined 33 points a game, had just a total of five points on 2-of-14 shooting before Abmas buried a 30-footer at the buzzer to give Texas a 27-11 halftime lead. But, yet, the Longhorns (22-12) still dominated the first 20 minutes while building a big enough cushion to hold on for the win.
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Texas' offense was off, but the defense was solid
Cutting, spacing, passing, shooting. All those things that helped No. 10 Colorado State (25-11) shoot 49% — second in the Mountain West — during the regular season didn’t work against a ferocious Texas defense.
Tyrese Hunter spearheaded that effort by hounding Isaiah Stevens, the Rams’ standout point guard. But he had plenty of help from players such as Brock Cunningham, Chendall Weaver and Kadin Shedrick, who all came off the bench early in the game and turned the tide.
After scoring eight points in the first 4 minutes, 44 seconds of the game, Colorado State has just three points in the final 15:16 of the first half. As a team, the Rams made just five of the 27 shots in the first half and turned it over 11 times.
"We just came in knowing we had to get stops and just playing together, talking, switching, all that stuff, said Weaver, a sophomore transfer from UTA who played in his first NCAA Tournament game. "We just came in with our mindset to get stops."
Colorado State ended the game shooting just 30% from the floor and only attempting only six free throws.
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Abmas and Disu still delivered their share of points, especially down the stretch. They both scored 12 points to tie for game-high honors.
Up next for Texas: Tennessee or Saint Peter's
Texas will play second-seeded Tennessee Saturday at 7 p.m. The Longhorns will face former coach Rick Barnes, the Tennessee head coach who led the Texas program from 1998-2015. Current Texas head coach Rodney Terry served as an assistant to Barnes for nine of those seasons.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas vs Colorado State in March Madness. Defense helps Longhorns advance
