Horns back on the court against UC Davis

The Texas Longhorns return to the court Friday night in Austin after beating Texas-San Antonio 58-37 on Monday night in the season opener. The opponent for the No.15 Longhorns will be Big West conference member UC Davis in the StubHub Legends Classic. The Longhorns will take on UC Davis tonight and Arkansas-Monticello on Sunday before advancing to New Jersey for the semi-final round on Friday, November

23rd against New Mexico State.

UC Davis travels to Austin fresh off of a 75-65 loss at New Mexico State on November 14 in which they were outrebounded 47 to 20. UC Davis, who was down 36-22 at the half to the Aggies, was led by guards Vince Oliver (17 points) and Mark Payne (10 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals).

UC Davis (1-1) features an eight-man rotation that can stretch to nine made up of only freshmen, sophomores and juniors. Through two games, 6-7 sophomore wing Shane Hanson leads the Aggies in scoring at 17.5 per game. The Aggies strength is shooting the three pointer, as they have converted 22 of 50 from beyond the arc for 44% on the season.

UC Davis is under the leadership of fifth-year head coach Gary Stewart. Stewart began his coaching tenure at UC Davis when the Aggies were a division II program in 2003-04. UC Davis made the jump to division I the following year and joined the Big West conference.

The Longhorns return to the court after a 21-point win against a Texas-San Antonio team that played a hold the ball, clock management game with hopes to keep the game respectable. The Longhorns held the Roadrunners to just 27% shooting from the field (12 of 45), but struggled mightily on the offensive end leading to a sloppy game without any flow.

D.J. Augustin led the Longhorns in scoring with 19 points, while sophomore Justin Mason turned in a productive all-around game with 12 points, five rebounds and three assists.

The Longhorns, playing without the services of impact freshman forward Gary Johnson, struggled rebounding the ball in the opening half and finished with just a 29-27 advantage on the glass.

This will be the first ever meeting between the two programs and the game will not be televised.

A look at the numbers

Texas shoots 44.4% overall, 31.3% from the three-pointline and 92.9% from the foul line.

UC Davis counters with 52.1% overall, 44.0% from three and 72.0% from the free throw line.

Texas owns a +2.0 rebound differential to -7.0 for the Aggies. Texas turned the ball over seven times in the opener, while UC Davis is averaging 14.0 turnover per game.

Projected starters

G D.J. Augustin - 5-11 - sophomore (19 points, 4.0

assists)

G A.J. Abrams - 5-11 - junior (11 points)

G Justin Mason - 6-2 - sophomore (12 ppg, 5.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists)

F Damion James - 6-7 - sophomore (6.0 points, 9.0 rebounds)

C Connor Atchley 6-10 - junior - (4.0 rebounds, 2.0 blocked shots)

Key reserves for Texas include 6-10 freshman Clint Chapman (4.0 points, 4.0 rebounds), 6-8 freshman Alexis Wangmene (3.0 points), 6-10 sophomore Dexter Pittman and 6-1 senior J.D. Lewis.

G David Carter 6-1 junior (6.0 points)

G Mark Payne 6-7 freshman (8.0 points, 6.0 assists,

3.5 steals)

GVince Oliver 6-3 junior (15.5 points, 2.5 rebounds)

F Shane Hanson 6-7 sophomore (17.5 points, 4.0

rebounds)

Key reserves for UC Davis include 5-10 freshman guard Ryan Silva (11.0 points), 6-7 sophomore forward C.J. Portz (4.5 points) and 6-9 sophomore Dominic Caleari

(4.5 points).