Texas cruises past New Hampshire, 78-60

It wasn’t quite the dominant performance Texas put forth during its season opener against Northwestern State, but in their second outing of the season, the Longhorns improved to 2-0 with a convincing 78-60 victory over New Hampshire on Tuesday.

With star freshman Mohamed Bamba sidelined after suffering a concussion in practice on Sunday, fellow freshman Jericho Sims joined the starting unit. Although Bamba’s offensive impact was noticeably missed, Texas still jumped out an early 3-0 edge behind a Dylan Osetkowski three-pointer and never surrendered the lead throughout.

Texas was tested early, though.

What quickly became a 12-3 edge was trimmed to just 12-11 with 15:31 remaining in the first half after New Hampshire connected on a trio of early threes, but that was as close as the Wildcats would get.

Texas and New Hampshire played back-and-forth basketball throughout much of the first half, leading the a narrow 29-23 Longhorns lead with just 3:45 remaining before intermission. A barrage of eight made free throws between that point and halftime allowed Texas to enter the break with a fairly comfortable 39-25 lead, also thanks in large part to 14 points off of seven new Hampshire turnovers.

The lead mushroomed even further coming out of halftime.

An Andrew Jones steal and transition jam allowed Texas to draw first blood in the second half, as well, and by the 14:13 mark, the ‘Horns were enjoying a 20-point cushion, 51-31.

That lead largely help firm throughout the remainder of the contest, and even expanded to 74-50 with just under five minutes remaining courtesy of another well-rounded offensive effort on the stat sheet.

Although it was far from the kind of performance to write home about, as Texas notched just seven assists and connected on only 7-of-24 attempts from three, five Longhorns cracked double digits in the scoring column.

Osetkowski’s 17-point, 14-rebound double-double served as a game-high in each category, while Jones’ 16 points were the second-most in the entire game. Kerwin Roach II contributed 12 points of his own, while Eric Davis Jr. and Jacob Young each added 11 points off the bench. Young did so in limited minutes behind a 3-of-5 shooting effort from beyond the arc. Sims recorded eight points, four rebounds and three blocks in Bamba’s place.

Matt Coleman led the way as a facilitator with three assists and only one turnover, which improved his assist-to-turnover ratio on the year to 10:1. Texas as a team, however, saw its seven dimes overshadowed by nine turnovers, which stands as the most notable area of regression from the opener after Texas dished 23 assists and only five turnovers against Northwestern State.

New Hampshire, on the other hand, enjoyed plenty of productivity from the talented frontcourt that Shaka Smart warned was capable of holding its own against Texas. In fact, nearly every bit of the success the Wildcats found came by way of the paint.

Iba Camara led the way with a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double, while Tanner Leissner scored 14 points and Jacoby Armstrong added another 12 before fouling out with 9:03 remaining in the game.

The remainder of New Hampshire’s roster contributed just 23 points, collectively.

Texas will be back in action on Saturday with Lipscomb coming to the Frank Erwin Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on Longhorn Network.