Longhorns Lead Colgate at Halftime Behind 5 Triples from Sir'Jabari Rice
DES MOINES, IOWA - The No. 2 seed Texas Longhorns led the No. 15 seed Colgate Raiders 41-32 at halftime of Thursday's first-round March Madness matchup at Wells Fargo Arena behind some incredibly hot 3-point shooting.
Texas guard Sir'Jabari Rice hit five triples and led all scorers with 15 points at the half. Marcus Carr added nine points on two made 3s of his own.
Colgate got a balanced scoring attack in the first half, as all seven players who received first-half minutes scored. Forwards Jeff Woodward and Ryan Moffatt led the way with six points apiece.
The Longhorns started out as cold like the sideways snow that was blowing outside the arena, falling into a 4-0 hole after failing to score until the 17:02 mark.
But they responded with a 7-0 run led by four quick points from Dylan Disu, who seemed eager to establish some early comfort in the paint.
Colgate clearly came to play though, not letting a cold start offensively of its own have any negative effects. Excellent ball movement from the Raiders led to a wide-open look from guard Oliver Lynch-Daniels before Carr scored six straight points to give the Longhorns a 15-12 lead with about 12 minutes to play.
Then, Rice started cooking.
He hit five straight triples in about a four-minute span to extend Texas' lead to 35-18 in a blink, as he suddenly led all scorers with 15 points. Carr joined in on the party, hitting a 3 of his own in transition.
But Colgate had a response in store. The Raiders put together an 8-0 run to cut the deficit back to single digits at 37-30 while the Longhorns started to cool off a bit.
This proved to be a key run for the Raiders, who kept the deficit to single digits instead of falling victim to Texas' hot shooting, which had quickly made the game seem like it was trending toward a blowout.
You can follow Zach Dimmitt on Twitter at @ZachDimmitt7
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