AUSTIN (KXAN) — The No. 19 Texas Longhorns held off a second-half rally by Louisiana State to beat the Tigers 96-85 in The Halal Guys Showcase at the Toyota Center in Houston.
Texas (8-2) scored 56 points in the first half, the most points for the Longhorns in a half all season, and led by 19 points at the break. Dylan Disu made his season debut after offseason foot surgery kept him out of the lineup for the first nine games of the season. Disu played 20 minutes and scored 17 points on 4 of 8 shooting with five assists and four rebounds. He made all nine of his foul shots.
LSU (6-5) cut a 22-point Texas lead down to seven at 70-61 with 9:54 left behind a mammoth second half by Jordan Wright. He finished with 33 points with 31 coming in the second half to help make things interesting, but the Longhorns responded to stretch the lead back to 14 points following a Max Abmas 3-pointer with 6:48 remaining. Abmas led the Longhorns with 20 points on 6 of 13 shooting, including a 4-for-9 performance from 3-point range. He added seven assists and six rebounds.
Tyrese Hunter ended with 19 points on 8 of 11 shooting, followed by Disu’s nice debut and Dillon Mitchell chipped in 12 points with 10 rebounds. Chendal Weaver and Brock Cunningham each scored nine points as the Longhorns shot 54% (32 for 59) from the field. Texas made half its 3-point attempts, 10 for 20, and shot 88% from the foul line. Texas outrebounded LSU 34-33 but was beaten on the offensive glass 13-9 and the Longhorns had 21 assists to LSU’s 11.
Texas ended the game by making six of its final eight shots with Weaver scoring seven points in the final 5:40. Texas held LSU’s starters to five points in the first half before Wright came to life in the second half. He was the only Tiger to score in double figures in the second half.
The Longhorns play their next four games at Moody Center beginning at 2 p.m., Dec. 22, against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
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