Maybe sophomore guard Isaiah Taylor was rusty; perhaps it was just a mid-season shooting slump. Either way, Taylor wasn’t quite himself in his first four games back after suffering a broken left wrist.
He bounced back from these offensive struggles in a major way Monday, leading the Longhorns in rebounds and assists to help guide No. 17 Texas to a 66-48 road victory against TCU.
Taylor scored 13 points, his most since returning from injury, while racking up seven rebounds and season-high six assists in the victory. He made six of his 12 shot attempts in the game after going just 10-of-40 from the field in his previous four games.
The Longhorns turned in one of their better offensive performances of the year, shooting 48 percent from the field while recording 16 assists as a team. Five different players scored at least 9 points in the game for Texas, while four players registered at least five rebounds.
Junior guard Javan Felix played a major role in the victory as well, leading Texas with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting. It was the first time Felix shot above 50 percent from the field in a game since the Dec. 20 match against Long Beach State.
After dominating the paint on both sides of the ball against West Virginia on Saturday, the Texas frontcourt continued its hot play against the Horned Frogs. The Longhorn big men clogged the paint and forced TCU to take contested perimeter shots all game long, leading to the Horned Frogs’ 33.3 percent from the field.
Fresh off his season-best 19-point performance against West Virginia, junior center Cameron Ridley had another good game against TCU with 10 points, four rebounds and three blocks. Freshman forward Myles Turner tallied 11 points, six rebounds and two blocks in the game, and senior forward Jonathan Holmes added 9 points and six boards.
With the victory, the Longhorns improve to 14-4 on the season and 3-2 against Big 12 opponents. After winning their first game of conference play against Texas Tech, the Longhorns dropped back-to-back games against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in a span of five days, leading to concern from Texas fans about the state of the team.
They’ve since won each of their last two games in convincing fashion and are now on their first winning streak of conference play. The road only gets tougher, as their next two games are at home against No. 11 Kansas on Saturday and on the road against No. 9 Iowa State on Monday.
