Marcus Carr scored 21 points as Texas No. 10 earned an 89-75 regular season victory over Oklahoma State Tuesday night at the Moody Center.
Timmy Allen scored 17 points and Brock Cunningham scored 15 points for Texas (17-3, 6-2 Big 12), which improved to 10-2 under interim head coach Rodney Terry. He took over the team in mid-December when Chris Byrd was suspended and fired three weeks later. This surge put the Longhorns in the thick of the Big 12 title chase.
Kalib Boone and John-Michael Wright each scored 18 points to lead Oklahoma State (11-9, 3-5).
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Texas attacked the basket early behind Dylan Disu, Christian Bishop and Allen and threatened to pull away as the Longhorns took a 33–25 lead in the first half. A deep 3-pointer from Bryce Thompson put the Cowboys out 33–30 before Texas ended the half 7–2, topped by Jabari Rice’s 3-pointer from the left flank.
Texas quickly extended their lead to 13 points after the break when Carr made an interception to set up Allen’s three-point play and then stepped back.
Disu scored 12 goals and was on the defensive in the second half, battling for blocks and rebounding lost balls to earn possession, while mid-range jump shots from Carr and Allen kept the Cowboys from escaping to close the gap.
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Consecutive three-pointers from Cunningham and Tyrese Hunter pushed Texas to a 69-58 lead, and the Longhorns rode that cushion to the end. Cunningham, a typical Longhorns guard averaging 4.2 points, shot 5-for-6 with three threes.
The Cowboys missed junior forward Moussa Cisse, who leads the Big 12 in both blocks (2.4 per game) and rebounds (8.9), but missed another game with an ankle injury. He returned for consecutive wins over Oklahoma State and Iowa State but returned to the bench on Tuesday night. The most recent player to lead the Big 12 in both categories was Mo Bamba of Texas during the 2017–18 season.
Carr, a graduate student in his sixth season at his third high school, is the only active player to have at least 2,000 points, 600 assists and 400 rebounds. Carr had 2,099 career points, 494 rebounds and 679 assists after Tuesday night.
