Tyrese Hunter leads Texas in strong first half as Horns cruise to 72-54 win over ISU

When Texas guard and former Iowa State Cyclone Tyrese Hunter made his return to Ames, Iowa on January 17, he was in the midst of a slump. The 2022 Big 12 freshman of the year entered Hilton Coliseum having scored 11 points in his previous three games, including a goose-egg performance versus Texas Tech a few days prior.

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Hunter was booed each time he touched the ball at his former home. Despite reaching double figures with 10 points, he was 3-of-11 from the field, 1-of-5 from three, and 2-of-6 from the line in a Longhorn loss.

In the return game in Austin on Tuesday, Hunter looked more like a player deserving of scorn and attention from opposing fans. This time, however, he was in front a friendly crowd. Hunter scored 15 points, the most since the first game of the new year, on 5-of-9 shooting including a 3-of-5 showing from three. Along with a similar 15 points from Jabari Rice, Texas zoomed to a first-half lead and never looked back in a 72-54 win.

“Knowing what we prepare for and going out there and executing it, it brings a joy to the game,” Hunter said.

With the win, the Longhorns remain tied with Kansas atop the Big 12 standings with an 11-4 league record. In addition to the 15 points apiece from Rice and Hunter, Marcus Carr added 13 points to the Texas total. Arterio Morris and Brock Cunningham each scored eight points.

Hunter’s night was part of a strong effort by UT from behind the arc. Texas was 12-of-28 from three-point land with nine makes from distance in the first half. Hunter and Carr set the pace for the Longhorn offense during the first 20 minutes, though the start was not as smooth as the finish.

Texas trailed by as much as six in the early stages of the game before a five-minute, 16-0 run put the Longhorns up 20-10. Hunter contributed only two points in a span that saw four different players add to the scoring total.

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He would find his groove at a later point in the half, scoring eight straight points for the Horns to help put Texas up by as much as 12. The Longhorns would ride a strong close to the half to enter the break up 47-29.

“Tyrese has been working extremely hard, and I’m glad to see he had some positive results tonight from all his hard work,” interim head coach Rodney Terry said.

The recent stretch of games had not been easy for the sophomore guard. Hunter failed to reach the 10-point threshold in each of the past four contests. He had real struggles on both ends of the floor, and found himself on the bench for most of crunch time versus Oklahoma.

Terry kept faith in the transfer, and saw that faith rewarded versus ISU.

“When I measure him on what his value is to our team, it’s more than scoring the ball,” Terry said. “Obviously, it helps our team when he’s able to score the ball.”

Texas held serve in the second half as Iowa State could never make the margin closer than 13. A Timmy Allen jump shot with under four minutes left followed by his fast break dunk all but sealed the win for Texas, with a Rice three-pointer doing the job moments later if Allen’s final bucket did not.

The win keeps the Longhorns tied for first in the Big 12 Conference with Kansas. The Jayhawks topped TCU in Fort Worth on Monday night to take a half-game lead before the Longhorns pulled even on Tuesday.

Kansas hosts West Virginia in Lawrence, Kan. this Saturday while the Longhorns head to Waco to face Baylor. Texas will look to sweep the regular season series with the Bears for the first time since the 2013-14 season.

Despite the Bears falling behind the Horns and Jayhawks in Big 12 play, Terry knows that a Scott Drew coached team in Waco is a dangerous squad to face.

“Tonight was a big game for us because it was the next game in front of us,” Terry said. “Obviously, we have a lot of respect for Scott Drew and Baylor. Baylor is really, really good. They’re one of the better teams in the country, a top-10 team in the country. When you talk about perimeter scoring and they’ve added their other big that was injured, they’re as good as any team that you’re going to play in the country.”

Texas has three games left in the regular season with trips to Waco and Fort Worth ahead of the season-finale in Austin versus the Jayhawks. The Longhorns need to stack wins versus quality teams in the always-difficult Big 12 in order to have a chance at the program’s first regular season conference title since 2008. That’s especially true since KU plays West Virginia and Texas Tech, two tough foes but also two teams at the bottom of the league standings.

How will Texas make sure the March 4 contest with the Jayhawks has big-time implications?

“We’re going to hang our hat on defense,” Hunter said. “Be aggressive, be us, be who we’ve been the whole year, and just lay it on that.”