Pittman’s 21 points lead No. 3 Texas to 77-59 win over Rice

Pittman’s 21 points lead No. 3 Texas, 77-59

HOUSTON — Dexter Pittman scored 21 points and No. 3 Texas held off a Rice rally before pulling away for a 77-59 victory Sunday.

Pittman was 7-of-8 shooting from the field for the Longhorns (5-0). Suleiman Braimoh scored 12 points to lead the Owls (4-2).

Texas led by 17 points early in the second half before the Owls rallied to get within 59-54 with just under 7 minutes to play. But Rice couldn’t stop Pittman and his 290 pounds as he dominated under the basket.

J’Covan Brown added 15 points for Texas, including two rally-killing baskets in the final minutes. Brown, a freshman, switched his jersey from No. 14 to No. 50 for the rest of the season to honor teammate Varez Ward, who was lost for the season with a thigh injury in pregame warmups last week.

Jordan Hamilton finished with 11 points with three 3-pointers for Texas.

Texas’ annual trip into the fertile recruiting grounds of Houston was more like a home game. Most of the 4,669 fans in Rice’s cozy Tudor Fieldhouse wore burnt orange instead of Rice blue.

Even with the traveling support, Texas struggled to shoot the ball early, missing 16 of its first 24 shots and the first seven 3-pointers. The Longhorns finally created some separation with a 9-0 run midway through the first half.

Avery Bradley, the slam dunk champion at the McDonald’s high school All-American game last spring, dunked an alley-oop from Brown before Hamilton made Texas’ first two 3-pointers.

Texas pushed the lead to 33-18 before Rice closed to within 33-23 at halftime, the first sign the Owls wouldn’t be intimidated on their home court.

Pittman scored Texas’ first five points of the second. The Owls tried to guard him with Braimoh, but at 6-foot-8, 225-pounds, he gave up nearly 70 pounds to the beefy Pittman and had no chance of keeping him from the basket.

The Longhorns again pushed out to a big lead at 44-27 when Pittman posted up for an easy 2-footer. The Owls slowly chipped away at the lead, again getting within 10 when Emerson Herndon’s layup made it 50-40 with 13:19 to play.

Rice finally cut the deficit under 10 when Arsalan Kazemi was left all alone under the basket and dunked. Braimoh made a two nifty moves past Pittman in the lane for two more layups that pulled Rice within 59-54.

Mostly quiet until then, the dominant Texas crowd finally got revved up and started chanting “Texas! Fight!” Rice fans countered with “Over-rated.”

But Rice’s offense disappeared down the stretch and the Owls went nearly four minutes without a basket.

Brown finally quieted the Rice fans with a pair of tough shots. The first was a driving layup, the second a fading jumper from the top of the lane that put Texas up 70-59. After the second basket, Brown turned toward a group of Rice fans and pounded his chest.