Texas pushes past shooting woes to top Colorado State 56-44 in first round of March Madness

AUSTIN (KXAN) — What's become a cliché every March couldn't have rang more true for the Texas men's basketball team Thursday night in Charlotte.

Survive and advance.

The Longhorns, seeded No. 7 in the Midwest Region in the NCAA tournament, held off a pesky 10th-seeded Colorado State squad 56-44 to win the opening round of March Madness.

Neither team played well in the first half, but Colorado State certainly played the worst of the two. The Rams made just five shots in 27 attempts during the first half, ending with 11 points, and even shooting below 40% for the half, Texas built a 27-11 halftime lead. Max Abmas scored the final five points of the half for Texas with the last shot coming on a 30-foot 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

That was the offensive highlight of the night for both teams as buckets were hard to come by. The Rams chipped into the Texas advantage and cut it to six points on a Joel Scott layup with 4:11 left, but Dylan Disu came through when the Longhorns needed him with three points the hard way on the following possession. Disu struggled shooting and was 3 for 15 up to that point, but he hit a tough shot inside as he absorbed contact from Scott. Disu made the foul shot to stretch Texas' lead back to 47-38 with 3:47 left. Disu finished with 12 points on 5 of 18 shooting.

"I tried to stay aggressive, and it's hard to do that when the shots aren't falling," Disu said. "I was just trying to stay with it."

Colorado State did a lot of damage to themselves with 19 turnovers, leading to 17 Texas points. The Rams came into the game averaging around 76 points per game but had its lowest offensive output in three seasons Thursday against the Longhorns. Colorado State point guard Isaiah Stevens was held scoreless in the first half and finished with 10 points on 4 of 16 shooting. Stevens came into the game averaging 16.2 points per game.

"He's really important to those guys," Longhorns head coach Rodney Terry said of Stevens. "People are going to see the box score and see Tyese Hunter with eight points, but he did a great job defending Stevens. He took that challenge on with a smile on his face. Tyrese is all about winning."

Colorado State shot 29% from the field, 17 for 58, and 6 of 24 from 3-point range. Texas was 40% from the field but was abysmal from 3-point range shooting 1 for 14. The Longhorns were 11 for 17 from the foul line compared to Colorado State's 4-for-6 performance.

Chendall Weaver provided a huge boost off the bench for the Longhorns with 11 points on 5 of 7 shooting in 29 minutes. Abmas finished with 12 points on 5 of 15 shooting and Ithiel Horton pulled down seven rebounds for Texas.

Texas (21-12) will play No. 2 Tennessee, coached by former Texas head coach Rick Barnes, in the second round on Saturday. The Volunteers clobbered 15th-seeded Saint Peter's 83-49 to advance.