AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas forward Dylan Disu made his first eight shots and the Longhorns rode a red-hot first half to a 94-58 blowout win over West Virginia on Saturday at Moody Center.
Disu connected on six consecutive 3-point shot attempts, mixing in a dunk and a layup in the first half, before missing his first shot early in the second half. He scored 19 points in the first half and finished with 27 on 10 of 16 from the field, including 7 of 10 from 3-point range. The Longhorns made 15 3-pointers to West Virginia’s three for the game.
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“We felt like we were locked in from the jump,” Disu said. “We’ve got to keep practicing hard and working hard, being physical and not waiting for the other team to hit us first.”
The Longhorns started the game 7 for 9 from the field and built a 55-30 halftime lead by shooting 66% from the floor and 50% from 3-point range. Dillon Mitchell added 10 points on 5 of 7 shooting while Chendall Weaver and Max Abmas each chipped in nine points in the opening half.
Texas forced 10 turnovers in the first half and scored 19 points off of them while holding a 15-2 advantage in fastbreak points over the Mountaineers. For the game, the Longhorns scored 29 points off 14 turnovers and scored 17 fastbreak points to six for West Virginia. Texas also blocked six shots and dished out 28 assists, a program record for a Big 12 game.
Tyrese Hunter came alive in the second half for Texas, scoring 13 of his 19 points on 5 of 7 shooting and 3-for-3 from 3-point range. Hunter also had seven assists and five rebounds, and Abmas scored 10 in the second half to end with 19 points and nine assists. Weaver finished with 13 points, six rebounds and four assists.
“I just needed to go out there and be myself,” Hunter said. “I’ve been in the league for three years and kind of know what to expect. We were flowing tonight.”
The Longhorns went on a 16-0 run during a 4:12 span in the second half to make the game even more lopsided. Head coach Rodney Terry emptied the bench with around 3:00 left in the game.
“I didn’t have my guys ready to play,” West Virginia head coach Josh Eilert said. “I’ve seen games like this over the years where a couple of big shots go down and they got a lot of clean looks. We didn’t close out very well, but there are games like that where guys see one go down and it opens the floodgates.”
Eilert was given a technical foul in the second half for arguing an offensive foul call.
It was Terry’s 201st win of his head coaching career, spanning stints at Fresno State and UTEP. It’s only the second home win for Texas in Big 12 play this season and West Virginia hasn’t won this season in five true road games. They’re also 0-4 in neutral site games.
Texas (16-8, 5-6 Big 12) won’t play for a week but have to travel to No. 5 Houston on Feb. 17. West Virginia (8-15, 3-7) completes a Texas road trip Monday in Fort Worth against TCU.