Rodney Terry analyzes play of Tyrese Hunter in Baylor win

Tyrese Hunter had one of his best games of the season and came up clutch for Texas in their win over No. 9 Baylor on Saturday. It was an outing that made Rodney Terry proud considering how highly he thinks of the junior guard.

Terry applauded Hunter in his postgame press conference following the 75-73 victory for the Longhorns over the Bears this weekend. He was happy to someone that he considers like family show out in a way like Hunter did in their massive win.

“Tyrese is a kid that I love like my own son,” said Terry. “He’s one of those guys that you know that you’re going to get his best every day. He’s a competitor, he’s a competitor.”

Hunter finished with a team-high of 21 points for his third 20-point performance in the last six games. He did so on top-notch efficiency as he shot 8-13 (61.5%) from the field, including a season-high of four makes from distance on seven attempts. He also dished three assists over the course of his 34 minutes on the afternoon.

However, all of that doesn’t compare to his late-game heroics inside of the Moody Center. In the midst of a back and forth contest, Baylor thought that they’d sent it to overtime off a three-pointer from Jalen Bridges with five seconds left. Instead, Hunter got the ball back off of his own inbound, raced up the court, and laid in the third game-winner of the Longhorns’ season to take their first ranked victory of the year by two.

Hunter has played his role very well for Texas as a starting member of their backcourt. That included on Saturday when he gave his team a much-needed victory with how he performed, especially in the final moments.

“He played great tonight,” said Terry.

“He’s a guy that I have the utmost respect for,” Terry said. “I thought he came out tonight and competed at a very high level.”

Hunter scores buzzer-beating layup to defeat No. 9 Baylor

Texas defeated Baylor on Saturday thanks to a buzzer-beating drive to the basket by Tyrese Hunter.

Hunter grabbed the hand off from Dylan Disu three-quarters of the way down the court. He then sped past the Baylor defense and made the leaning basket to win the game for the Longhorns.

TYRESE HUNTER CALLED GAME 🤘#HookEm
pic.twitter.com/hj8umX9xup

— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) January 20, 2024

“Man, I’m proud of these guys. We go through so much right now but we are sticking to the same routine since the summertime,” Hunter said postgame. “Everybody playing hard here. Everybody still has got the belief in each other. It doesn’t matter what the outside people say. We’re here as a unit, as a team, as a family. We’re going to keep going.”