No. 2 seed Texas outshoots Colgate to cruise to 81-61 win

Texas guard Sir'Jabari Rice celebrates after making a 3-point basket in the first half of a first-round college basketball game against Colgate in the NCAA Tournament, Thursday, March 16, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Texas guard Sir'Jabari Rice celebrates after making a 3-point basket in the first half of a first-round college basketball game against Colgate in the NCAA Tournament, Thursday, March 16, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Sir'Jabari Rice scored 23 points and No. 2 seed Texas shut down sharpshooting Colgate for an 81-61 victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night.

Rice made five of his seven 3-pointers in the first half, helping the Longhorns get off to a fast start. Marcus Carr finished with 17 points and Dylan Disu had 17 points and nine rebounds.

Texas (27-8) shot 13 for 23 from 3-point range while advancing to a second-round matchup against the Penn State-Texas A&M winner on Saturday in the Midwest Region.

In another inspired performance under interim coach Rodney Terry, Rice and the Longhorns picked the perfect time to get hot on the perimeter against the nation's leading outside shooting team. They matched their season best for 3-pointers made.

The Raiders (26-9) went just 3 for 15 from deep against a relentless and long-armed Longhorns defense. Colgate shot better than 40% before the tournament. The leading individual 3-point shooter in the country, Oliver Lynch-Daniels, went 1 for 4. He was a 50% shooter from long range this season.

Keegan Records and Ryan Moffatt each scored 13 points for the 15th-seeded Raiders, who fell to 0-6 all-time in NCAA Tournament play. Tucker Richardson, the Patriot League Player of the Year, had nine points on 4-for-11 shooting.

With most of the fans in Wells Fargo Arena rooting for the upset, the Longhorns adjusted to Colgate's second-half zone defense and never let the lead get smaller than seven points.

About an hour before Texas took the court, No. 2 seed Arizona was ousted by Princeton in the West Region. The Tigers became the 11th team seeded 15th to win a first-round game in 149 tries and the third in three years.

The Longhorns played hard enough -- and shot well enough -- to make sure they didn't land on that list.

Carr, a sixth-year senior who previously played at Pittsburgh and Minnesota and had the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the Big 12 this season, deftly directed his teammates and fired them up at the right times, too.

After driving hard toward the block, Carr kicked the ball back out to the top of the key to set up Price's fourth 3-pointer for a 29-17 lead. As the calm and deliberate Rice flashed a sheepish smile, Carr gave him an exaggerated hand slap as he jumped up and down on the retreat for defense.

Rice, the lanky super sub and graduate transfer from New Mexico State who is aiming to play in the Final Four in his native Houston, went 8 for 14 from the field.

The Longhorns have come a long way since coach Chris Beard was arrested on a later-dropped domestic violence charge and fired soon after that.

They hit the NCAA Tournament in stride under Terry's even-keeled guidance with two decisive wins over Kansas, the regular-season Big 12 champion and No. 1 seed in the West Region, that included the conference championship.

What was going to happen for them after Beard's sudden departure was anyone's guess outside the program, but the players -- despite all but one being there just one or two years -- have a strong bond that has carried them to the verge of a trip to the tournament's second weekend for the first time since 2008. The last Final Four for Texas was in 2003, when Terry was an assistant under coach Rick Barnes on that team.

The Raiders won their third straight Patriot League Tournament, flourishing under 12th-year coach Matt Langel after a slow start to his tenure. Colgate set a Patriot League record with a 26-game conference win streak that ended last month. Colgate gave No. 3 seed Wisconsin a scare as a No. 14 seed last season, a 67-60 loss in Milwaukee.

photo Texas guard Marcus Carr, center, passes between Colgate forward Keegan Records, left, and guard Oliver Lynch-Daniels, right, in the second half of a first-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament, Thursday, March 16, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
photo Texas's Marcus Carr tries to get past Colgate's Jeff Woodward during the first half of a first-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament Thursday, March 16, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
photo Texas interim head coach Rodney Terry watches from the bench in the first half of a first-round college basketball game against Colgate in the NCAA Tournament, Thursday, March 16, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
photo Colgate guard Braeden Smith (2) drives past Texas guard Tyrese Hunter (4) in the first half of a first-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament, Thursday, March 16, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

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