Marcus Carr scored a season-high 19 points as No. 7 Texas shrugged off an uneven first 17 minutes and defeated Sam Houston State 73-57 on Monday in a unique throwback game in Austin, Texas.
The game was played in Gregory Gymnasium on the University of Texas campus with a student-only attendance as part of coach Chris Beard’s move to pay tribute to the program’s successes and traditions. It was the first regular-season men’s basketball game in the edifice, which has a capacity of about 3,900, since 1977.
The Longhorns used a late run to take a 10-point lead to halftime and slowly pulled away from Sam Houston State, pushing the advantage to 69-49 after a layup by Timmy Allen with 5:01 to play. Texas then carried its momentum through the end game to win its fourth straight contest.
Andrew Jones and Courtney Ramey added 14 points each for Texas (5-1) with Allen hitting for 12.
Savion Flagg, a transfer from Texas A&M, led the Bearkats with 16 points. Demarkus Lampley and Javion May scored 11 points apiece for Sam Houston (2-5) and Jaden Ray added 10 in the loss, the Bearkats’ third straight.
The Longhorns struggled to take charge of the game in the first half, as Sam Houston State used an 8-0 run capped by Damon Nicholas Jr.’s layup to knot the score at 28 with 3:13 to play in the half. But Texas found its stride, dominating the final three minutes with a 10-0 spurt to carry a 38-28 advantage into intermission.
Carr had 13 points to lead all scorers at halftime, with Flagg pacing the Bearkats with eight points. Texas outshot Sam Houston State 54.2 percent to 41.4 percent in the half while the Bearkats had a 16-8 edge in points in the paint and recorded eight second-chance points over the first 20 minutes of play.
–Field Level Media
