Texas handles Northwestern State in 77-53 win

The Horns led by as many as 30 points in an easy win over the Demons on Sunday.

The Texas Longhorns didn’t show any signs of rust on Sunday at the Moody Center despite returning from a 10-day holiday break in a 77-53 win over the Northwestern State Demons that witnessed the returns of freshman guard Tre Johnson and senior forward Jayson Kent from injury.

Johnson scored a team-high 18 points after missing the previous two games with a hip injury, putting together an efficient performance by hitting 7-of-11 shots, including 4-of-7 shooting from beyond the three-point line, and adding four rebounds and four assists. Two of the assists came on lobs in transition to high-flying junior guard Chendall Weaver.

Kent had missed the previous eight games with a wrist injury, but reached the 1,000-point plateau for his career on Sunday with a nine-point effort that featured 3-of-4 shooting.

As a team, the Longhorns shot 50 percent from the floor and 44.0 percent from the three-point line, although junior guard Jordan Pope was the only Texas player other than Johnson to reach double figures with 11 points as head coach Rodney Terry was able to use nine players for 16 or more minutes as Texas jumped out to an 8-0 lead to start the game with two threes and a dunk by senior forward Kadin Shedrick and eventually took a 19-point lead into halftime.

Another 8-0 run by the Horns opened the second half, part of a 15-4 surge after halftime that pushed the lead to 30 points, the largest of the game for Texas.

The Longhorns weren’t able to force many turnovers — the Demons only had five all game — but they did hold Northwestern State to 3-of-17 shooting from three and 7-of-19 shooting on layups while blocking five shots.

Texas makes its SEC debut on Jan. 4 against No. 13 Texas A&M in College Station.