 never trailed, with Cal (4-2) tying it just once at 21 on Matt Bradley's free throws.The Longhorns led 25-21 at the half and took a 13-point advantage on Kai Jones' put-back dunk with 12:35 left. A put-back dunk by Jericho Sims to made it 51-38 with 5:48 left.''It was huge,'' Smart said about Sims' play. ''I just thought his aggressiveness was at a high level and he played within himself he finished really, really well. Even took the ball from people a couple times and I thought he was really solid on the defensive end.'' Jase Febres added 12 points for Texas.Bradley led Cal with 22 points.''I would say that to play two nationally ranked teams this early in a season where we're rebuilding is probably an earlier test than maybe would be ideal,'' first-year Cal coach Mark Fox said. ''But we'll use it hopefully as a great lesson in how we have to grow and change and improve. If we use it the right way, this weekend can be very productive for us.'' 3-POINT STRUGGLESCal was 1 of 8 from 3-point range.''It's our fourth game in eight days, our second game in under 24 hours, I didn't feel like today would be a good 3-point shooting day for either team,'' Fox said. ''I think we anticipated it would probably be a game where 3s are hard to come by. And they were for us.'' 2K EMPIRE CLASSIC REMATCHThe last time the teams played each other, Texas beat Cal 71-55 in the 2K Classic Championship game at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 21, 2014.POLL IMPLICATIONSWith the loss to Georgetown, Texas likely cost itself its spot in the Top 25. However, with the win over Cal, the Longhorns should still be receiving votes.BIG PICTURETexas: The Longhorns bounced back from their first loss of the season with a win over a Power Five opponent before a week off.California: The Golden Bears have lost back-to-back games after starting the season 4-0.UP NEXTTexas: Hosts McNeese State on Nov. 30.California: Hosts UC Davis on Tuesday night.)
Nov 22, 2019No. 22 Texas uncorked its worst half of basketball on Thursday, and the Longhorns will be ready to wipe away that bad performance when they square off against California on Friday in the third-place game of the 2K Empire Classic Benefiting Wounded Warrior Project at Madison Square Garden in New York.The Longhorns stumbled their way to an 82-66 loss to Georgetown in the semifinals on Thursday while Cal was waylaid by No. 1 Duke 87-52.Texas played well for the first 20 minutes against the Hoyas but came apart after halftime, hitting just 22.2 percent (6 of 27) from the field, including a 27.3 percent mark (3 of 11) from 3-point range in the second half.The Longhorns were outscored 45-24 after halftime and finished without a field goal for the final 5:06 of the game."Georgetown deserves a ton of credit, but for us, this is a really good game from the standpoint of having to look in the mirror and figure out how we need to be our best," Texas coach Shaka Smart said afterward. "Honestly, we weren't that good in the second half." Texas (4-1) was led by Matt Coleman III, who posted a game-high 22 points while converting a career-best 6 of 6 from 3-point range.The Hoyas outshot Texas 50.9 percent to 37.7 percent, outrebounded the Longhorns 34-28 and were 21 of 28 from the free-throw line compared with the Longhorns' 9 of 10.The Longhorns gave up a season-high point total. Texas entered the game allowing an average of 55.3 points per game on a combined 36.3 percent field-goal shooting, including a 28.8 percent mark from 3-point range. All that was undone against Georgetown in the second half.The Golden Bears fell into the third-place game when they were overwhelmed by Duke.Cal (4-1) led 8-6 before the Blue Devils wore them out, running away with a 17-3 spurt that set the table for the blowout. The Golden Bears' 21 points were the fewest they've scored in a first half this season."We got off and played the first eight minutes exactly like we wanted to," California coach Mark Fox said. "We made a couple errors, which is going to happen. Honestly, we have five kids who've never played a road game, not to mention play in Madison Square Garden against the No. 1 team in the country." Cal didn't even have a player score in double figures in the loss. Kareem South and D. J. Thorpe led the Golden Bears with eight points apiece, and Matt Bradley had seven. Cal shot just 36.5 percent and was outrebounded 50-28 by the powerful Blue Devils."We weren't disappointed to see Duke spread out -- it gave us some opportunities to play one-on-one in the post," Fox said. "We just didn't complete any of those plays, because quite honestly, they're bigger, stronger, longer than we are. And so, you know, the big guys beat up the little guys a little bit inside tonight, and we didn't play well enough in the paint." Cal and Texas have met just four times, most recently in the 2014-15 season. Each team has won twice.--Field Level Media
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