The Longhorns made enough plays down the stretch to salvage an ugly second half in Brooklyn.
For the first time since the 2020 Maui Invitational in North Carolina, an objectively absurd combination of words, the Texas Longhorns won an early-season multi-team event by securing the Legends Classic with a 67-58 win over the Saint Joseph’s Hawks at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Friday.
Texas needed a 13-2 run in the second half to pull away from a competitive Saint Joseph’s team that used effective defensive strategies to force the Horns into a poor start to the second half — head coach Rodney Terry’s team went 2-of-11 shooting with five turnovers out of halftime in a defensive slugfest that saw the Hawks employ some traps on star Texas freshman guard Tre Johnson and a three-quarter court pressure into a 1-3-1 zone that slowed the Horns in getting into their halfcourt sets.
Down the stretch, however, Texas was able to execute offensively and get some stops — after Saint Joseph’s took a one-point lead on a dunk with 5:29 remaining, Longhorns senior forward Kadin Shedrick responded with a jumper and a dunk before Johnson converted on a trip to the line and hit a jumper of his own to finish an 8-0 run.
As the game got down to crunch time, Texas junior guard Chendall Weaver assisted a dunk by Shedrick, Johnson hit a jumper on an assist from Shedrick and senior guard Julian Larry and senior forward Arthur Kaluma both converted on trips to the line to put the game away.
And while Johnson led the Horns with 17 points, he was 1-of-5 shooting from three-point range and forced himself on the game too frequently by attempting too many one-on-one plays instead of moving the ball and moving himself.
The second game from senior Arkansas transfer wing Tramon Mark was also disappointing — Saint Joseph’s forced him to his weaker right hand and a 1-of-5 shooting appearance with three turnovers and a minus-12 finish in 25 minutes.
Backup senior forward Ze’Rik Onyema posted a minus-12 in 13 minutes, making a basket and committing two fouls.
Add in a confused performance from freshman forward Nic Codie in his second game after spending the offseason rehabilitating a knee injury and the Longhorns received poor performances off the bench from the frontcourt and from Mark in his second game back from an ankle injury.
Mark was ineffective when forced off his dominant hand, struggling to impact the game for his teammates with three turnovers to a single assist and drifting on one of his two three-point attempts.
With senior forward Jayson Kent out for a second consecutive game with a wrist injury, that ultimately meant too few Longhorns starring in their roles for Terry and his staff, ensuring the outcome was in jeopardy until the final minutes.
Texas was able to secure the win against a solid Atlantic 10 opponent, but considering the disparity in talent and athleticism, the ways that Saint Joseph’s was able to scheme the Longhorns into so many poor possessions in the second half put into stark perspective the areas in which Texas needs to improve before facing No. 2 UConn in two weeks.
Before then, Texas returns to the Moody Center next Friday against Delaware State.