The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Monday night presented an early season matchup between a pair of Bahamians in men’s NCAA Division I basketball and the Legends Classic Austin Regional Round.

Travis Munnings may have had the better individual numbers, but Shaquille Cleare and his Texas Longhorns emerged with the 80-59 win over the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

After a double double in the season opener, Munnings finished one point shy against Texas with nine points and 10 rebounds. He struggled from the field at just 2-13 and 1-6 from three-point range.

Cleare finished with eight points and six rebounds and shot 4-7 from the field.

Texas, the No. 23 ranked team in the country, moved to 2-0 while the Warhawks fell to 1-1.

The Longhorns got off to a fast start to open the game and Cleare took advantage inside early on to score twice within the first two minutes. His second basket would cap a 10-3 lead heading into the first media timeout.

Munnings made a three, a part of a 9-0 run to give the Warhawks a 12-10 advantage, but the lead would be short-lived.

A balanced scoring attack led to a 37-28 Texas lead at the half.

The Warhawks would trim the second half deficit to four (41-37) but it would be as close as they would manage for the remainder of the game.

“I thought our guys shared the ball pretty well, did a good job taking care of the ball, but we didn’t shoot the ball great in the first half,” Longhorns head coach Shaka Smart  said.

“They’re a good team. They’re going to win their share of games this year. They are hard to guard with their motion offence, and they are dangerous because they have a lot of different guys who can make threes.”

Warhawks head coach Keith Richard echoed the sentiment of the three-point line being the deciding factor as the Warhawks shot just 24 per cent from beyond the arch.

“Well, we’re going to have to be a shooting team. We’re going to have to be a shoot it and make it team. But they forced us out just a step or two further than we needed to be at times, but we won’t see that length in our league. There will be some teams with some length but not like that. We’ve actually shot the ball pretty well in practice and exhibition and the first game. But again, they bothered us.”

Also at the University of Texas, Lashann Higgs and the Longhorns’ No.8 ranked women’s team stumbled out of the game with a 71-50 loss to the Stanford Cardinal.

Higgs finished with seven points and three rebounds in 17 minutes.

“They were the better team. We haven’t executed things in practice the way we need to,” said Longhorns head coach Karen Aston.

“We went through a stretch where we fouled too much, and we went through a stretch where we weren’t helping each other defensively. We will get home and get to work because that’s all we can do.”

According to a vote of Big 12 head coaches, the Longhorns are predicted to finish second behind Baylor and also finish with a single first place vote.

The Longhorns are coming off a 31-5 record and an NCAA Elite Eight appearance in 2015-16.

Texas went 15-3 to finish second in the league and tied the school record for most Big 12 victories with 15. The Longhorns have appeared in back-to-back Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship games.

Also in the state of Texas, Tavario Miller posted another productive outing for the Texas A&M Aggies.

Miller finished with seven points and three rebounds in just 14 minutes of the Aggies’ 76-53 win over American University. They improved to 2-0 on the season.

After holding Northwestern State to just 27.9 per cent shooting on Friday during the season opener, the A&M defence was again solid Monday night and held the Eagles to just 35 per cent shooting from the floor (21-of-60).

In the NEC, Mike Carey Jr and the Wagner Seahawks suffered a letdown after an opening night upset on the road over the No.18 ranked UConn Huskies.

The Seahawks fell 87-76 over the UMass Lowell Redhawks.

The Redhawks answered with a 9-0 run, however, over a five-minute stretch to take a 13-7 lead.

The Seahawks struggled on the offensive end, shooting 36 per cent (22-of-61), which included a 7-of-26 (27 per cent) effort from three-point range.

Carey posted a double double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Carey’s first three of the season gave Wagner its largest lead of the game very early on, a 7-4 advantage.

LJ Rose made his debut with the BYU Cougars and shined with a win.

Rose got the start and finished with four points, three rebounds and three assists in the Cougars’ 82-73 win over the Princeton Tigers.

“It was a dogfight on every possession. That’s a very good basketball team we played tonight, and a win that will be a good one for us in January and in March. Hats off to Princeton. They’ll win a lot of games,” said BYU coach Dave Rose.

“We played a lot of guys that haven’t played at all for our programme this season. The result was really positive for our staff - the way they played aggressively and together.”

BYU improved to 11-1 in home openers and 9-3 in season openers under Rose. The Cougars improved to a 5-0 overall series record against the Tigers.

LJ Rose graduated from the University of Houston last year and committed to join the BYU for his post graduate campaign.

Following an injury plagued senior season with the Houston Cougars where he appeared in just two games, Rose will look to conclude his collegiate career on a strong note.

BYU has just four guards eligible for play this season after allowing Rose to step in and fill an immediate void. 

Although he played sparingly as a senior, as a junior Rose averaged 9.8 points and 5.3 assists in a starting role when relatively healthy.