Texas College Basketball Wrap-Up

Texas schools came out of Saturday's college basketball action with a collective 3-2 record, spread across two different conferences. (Big XII and Conference USA)

The premier showdown of the weekend pitted the 12th ranked Texas Longhorns against Bobby Knight's Red Raiders of Texas Tech. With an outstanding defensive effort put up by head coach Rick Barnes' boys, the Longhorns were able to run away with a 73-47 victory in Austin. Texas won its 12th straight over the Red Raiders, who were contained to 16 points in the first half. Texas Tech's leading scorer, Martin Zeno, was held to 3-for-12 shotting for 9 points as Longhorn's Justin Mason and D.J. Augustin (19 points) played rugged defense on him all day. Texas shooter extraordiannaire A.J. Abrams, who had been mired in a 7-for-32 slump from three-point land, broke out in extraordinary fashion by scoring 17 points and going 3-5 from downtown in the second half, as Texas continued to separate itself from the Red Raiders en route to a crushing victory.

Meanwhile, in Stillwater, Oklahoma a dog fight ensued between Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. The 18th ranked Aggies came away with a 59-56 victory despite committing turnovers on 8 of their first 13 possessions. Courtesy of 51% shooting as a team, the Aggies were able to overcome their errors. A&M ultimately claimed victory thanks to 2 go-ahead free throws hit by guard Dominique Kirk with 44 seconds left in the game and the team's defense in the final minutes of the match, holding the Cowboys scoreless in the last 2:52 of the game. A&M was lead by Josh Carter's (who suffered a leg injury near the game's close) 13 points as well as Joseph Jones and Kirk, who contributed 11 points apiece.

In Mississipi, the Rice Owls found themselves on the losing end of the scoreboard, sucummbing to a 71-53 defeat at the hands of Southern Miss. Despite a 25-25 tie near the end of the fist half, the Golden Eagles went on a 10-1 scoring streak to put the game out of the Owls' reach after intermission. Rice saw its losing streak fall to nine games and its overall record drop to 3-16, with no confernece wins to date. Southern Miss managed a balanced scoring attack, led by Jeremy Wise and Sai'Quon Stone who each scored 17 points. Rice was led by Lawrence Gorham's 14 points.

Finally, Houston played host to Marshall and Hofheinz Pavilion proved to be an inhospitable environment on Saturday night. The Cougars walked away with a 71-58 victory, upping their Conference USA mark to 4-0 and overall record to 15-3. Houston came out of the gate fast, notching six successful three-pointers in its first seven field goal attempts as the team hit 42 percent of its long distance attempts for the game. Led by Robert McKiver's 19 points, the Cougars never let their lead dip below six points. Helping the Cougars to victory, Dione Dowell scored 15 points (5-for-9 from beyond the arc) and Lanny Smith contributed with 10 assists.

Photo: flickr user mrp1001