Texas 73, Rice 59

The Texas Longhorns pulled away late to defeat the Rice Owls 73-59 Saturday afternoon at the Erwin Center. Texas coach Rick Barnes shook up his starting line-up by choice, replacing Alexis Wangmene and Jonathan Holmes with Clint Chapman and Jaylen Bond, and by necessity as well. Earlier in the week, Julien Bond injured his hand in a car door and thus Sheldon McClellan started in his place. With all of the changes in effect, J'Covan Brown stayed the course as his team's undisputed leader by pouring in 23 points despite turning the ball over 6 times. McClellan made the most of his starting cameo by scoring 19 points, and Sterling Gibbs came off of the bench to hit 3-3 three-point shots. Myck Kabongo, following up a miserable performance at North Carolina, finished with 9 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers. Rice, who had recently won their game at Texas A&M, narrowed the Longhorns' lead to 2 with as little as 11:17 left in the 2nd half, but Texas went on to win by 14 and improve their record to 10-3 on the season.