After season-opening loss, No. 19 Texas meets Houston Christian

No. 19 Texas looks to rebound from a rare season-opening loss and get back on the winning track when it hosts Houston Christian on Friday in Austin, Texas.The Longhorns begin their home schedule after an 80-72 loss to Ohio State on Monday in their season opener at Las Vegas.Texas received a game-high 29 points from budding star Tre Johnson, who established a program record for points in a freshman debut, topping the previous mark of 20 by Kevin Durant in a home win against Alcorn State on Nov. 9, 2006.Texas also received 10 points each from Arthur Kaluma and Kadin Shedrick in the loss, which marked the first time the Longhorns dropped their opening game since 2015 when they lost to Washington in Shanghai, China.Texas never led against Ohio State after surrendering 10 baskets from 3-point range to the hot-shooting Buckeyes in the first half.”Ten 3s in the first half was a lot to overcome,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said. “We kept battling through it and gave ourselves a chance down the stretch. We’ve got to continue to work on our defense, continue to get better defensively, and we will.”The Longhorns played without guard Tramon Mark, who is battling a right ankle injury. Mack’s availability for Friday’s game is to be determined.While it looked like Johnson’s spectacular debut might be enough to push Texas to the win, Ohio State’s balanced attack eventually prevailed.”The best is still yet to come for Tre,” Terry said. “He’s playing really hard on defense as well as trying to score the ball on offense. Tre is one of those guys that, again, plays the game to win. He’s not all caught up in how many points he has”.

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