Texas Longhorns Grind Out Ugly Win at Home vs. Kansas City

The Texas Longhorns overcame shooting struggles to pull out a win over Kansas City.

Texas Longhorns head coach Sean Miller reacts during the second half against the Kansas City Roos at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

They can't all be pretty.

The Texas Longhorns men's basketball team found a way to pick up its third win of the season on Saturday at the Moody Center, taking care of business in a 71-55 victory over Kansas City.

"It wasn't an easy game to cheer for Texas here this afternoon," Texas head coach Sean Miller said. " ... We did not play well today."

Texas Offense Struggles

Texas Longhorns head coach Sean Miller talks to the referee during the first half against Fairleigh Dickinson at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

It wasn't a pretty offensive performance from Miller's offense, as Texas finished 25 of 63 from the field and 4 of 20 from 3-point range.

The Longhorns' offense looked the part during the past two home games but were sluggish following a noon central tip time.

Miller said the team needs to work on realizing that the game can be won in different ways even when the shots aren't going in.

"I didn't think our mentality in the second half of today's game reflected a group that understood that," Miller said. "It now becomes our job to embrace that, learn from it, grow from it, and be better on Tuesday night."

Kansas City trailed by as many as 21 in the contest. The Roos cut the lead to single digits in the second half at 50-42 with 10 minutes to go but the Longhorns closed things out on a high note despite an overall poor day offensively.

The Longhorns got a team-high 13 points and seven rebounds from Dailyn Swain while Matas Vokietaitis had 12 points and eight boards.

Lassina Traore had a double-double for Texas, finishing with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

U'Riyah Evans had a game-high 17 points for the Roos.

Texas guard Simoen Wilcher finished with nine points on 3 of 4 shooting from the 3-point line.

"Thank goodness Sim Wilcher showed up," Miller said. "We also didn't shoot well from the free throw line, and consequently, we scored 71 points. We added plenty more points on the table that we could have scored in this game."

The Longhorns will look to get back on track offensively on Tuesday at home against Rider.