Texas basketball team bounced back big-time against Houston Christian. Three things we saw

Three days after falling to Marquette and former Texas coach Shaka Smart, the Texas men’s basketball team rebounded with a 77-50 win over outmanned Houston Christian. Max Abmas, the Longhorns’ leading scorer for the season, again paced No. 12 Texas (7-2) with 16 points and dished out a season-high seven assists while forward Dillon Mitchell tallied 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Here are three things we saw in Texas’ resounding win:

Marquette loss meant motivation

Texas coach Rodney Terry didn’t hide his disappointment with the Longhorns’ effort against Marquette on Wednesday. That led to some intense practices, which carried over to the Moody Center court Saturday. The Longhorns held Houston Christian to 30.3% shooting from the floor and didn’t shy away from diving on the court for loose balls and stretching out to tip away passes. Houston Christian turned it over 16 times while being hounded by Texas, and that led to 20 transition points for the Longhorns.

They said it: “When I saw that score on Wednesday, I was not very happy. Because I knew the next few days of practice were not going to be fun for those guys, and they were going to come out with some extra motivation. Shaka didn't do me any favors; let's put it that way.” — Houston Christian coach Ron Cottrell

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Horns flex muscle in massive run

To its credit, Houston Christian went toe to toe with Texas for the first 10 minutes of the game before the Longhorns seized control by locking down on defense. During a stretch of play that fell a few ticks short of 12 minutes, Texas forced 10 turnovers and held HCU to 0-for-13 shooting in a 19-0 run that gave the Longhorns a 37-17 halftime lead. They also seized control of the boards with the help of  Mitchell, who had his third double-double of the season.

They said it: “I’d say just there was the intensity. But every game we need to come out and our intensity has to be high. We’ve got to come out and set the tone from the jump, and it starts with our defense.” — Texas forward Dillon Mitchell

Disu closer to seeing the court

For the first time this season, injured forward Dylan Disu went through a full pregame workout, even though he did not play. But Terry said Disu keeps getting closer to returning to the court, and he might even see a few minutes in the Longhorns’ next game against LSU in Houston next weekend. Disu hasn’t played since suffering a foot injury in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, when he led Texas in scoring and rebounding.

They said it: “Disu’s made a lot of good progress. He's already back practicing with us right now. He's going to have a full week of work with us this next week, and we'll kind of gauge and see what that looks like at the end of the week.” — Texas coach Rodney Terry

Up next: Longhorns face LSU in Houston

After taking the week off to focus on finals, Texas will meet future SEC rival LSU in a neutral-site game at Houston’s Toyota Center next Saturday. LSU (5-5), which fell to Kansas State 75-60 Saturday, is led by former Texas player and Westlake graduate Will Baker, a 7-foot forward who paces the Tigers with 14.1 points a game.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Three things we saw from Texas basketball team vs. Houston Christian