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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Even with 7-foot center Chris Mihm on the
bench in foul trouble for a seven-minute stretch of the second
half, Texas was still too big for Indiana State.
Darren Kelly scored 17 points, and Texas big men Mihm, Gabe
Muoneke and Chris Owens each added 16 as the fifth-seeded Longhorns
beat Indiana State 77-61 on Thursday in the first round of the West
Regional.
|  | | Indiana State's Terence Avery tries to put a stop to Chris Mihm in the low post. |
"Our game plan was to play from inside out," Texas coach Rick
Barnes said. "We felt we had an advantage there."
Mihm, an All-American center for the Longhorns (24-8), scored 15
points in the first 29 minutes. When he was called for an offensive
foul, his fourth, with 10:46 to play, the Sycamores made a brief
charge.
Indiana State's Abasi Thompson scored to make it 56-51 with 9:19
to play and the Huntsman Center crowd, eager for an upset, cheered
the 12th-seeded Sycamores (22-10).
But Texas had other plans.
Led by the 6-7 Muoneke and 6-8 Owens, the Longhorns outscored
Indiana State 21-10 over the final 8:33.
"They concentrated more in the second half on getting it
inside," Sycamores forward Matt Renn said. "They were huge down
low."
After Owens took a feed from Ivan Wagner for a dunk, and Muoneke
scored on a drive that made it 60-51 with eight minutes left,
Texas' lead never slipped below seven points.
Even Mihm agreed the Longhorns never missed him.
"They played all around solid basketball at every position,"
Mihm said. "Chris Owens stepped up and Gabe was playing
unbelievable. They took over the game."
The Sycamores, returning to Salt Lake City for their first NCAA
Tournament game since Larry Bird led them to the 1979 title game,
charged in the second half but couldn't cut the deficit below five.
"We had to come out from packing it in and give pressure to
give us a chance to win," Indiana State coach Royce Waltman said.
"But that opened it up inside and they got easy baskets to put it
away."
Point guard Michael Menser led a 14-2 run that cut Indiana
State's 39-26 halftime deficit to 56-51 with 9:19 to play. Except
for climbing within eight points two other times, the Sycamores
would get no closer.
"We gathered our thoughts and made a decent run," said guard
Nate Green, who was held to five points, nine below his season
average.
Texas also shot well, hitting 61.2 percent (39 of 49) while
holding Indiana State to 40 percent (24 of 60).
Menser led Indiana State with 22 points and Renn had 10. Green,
the player of the year in the Missouri Valley Conference, was held
to one point in the second half.
Waltman moved 6-9 Brian Giesen into the starting lineup to match
up with Mihm.
It worked for a while. The Sycamores, with no other player on
the floor taller than 6-7, used good ball movement to get good
shots and take a 22-19 lead with 7:50 before halftime.
But when it seemed the Longhorns were in for a struggle, the
shots stopped falling for Indiana State. Texas went into a
triangle-and-two defense, holding the Sycamores to one field goal
the rest of the first half.
"I thought both teams were tentative to start with," Barnes
said. "Once we went to the triangle and two, it got us going and
slowed them down, but we knew they were going to keep fighting
back."
Kelly, meanwhile, hit three 3-pointers during a 10-0 burst over
a span of 2:42 late in the first half. The Longhorns went ahead for
good with five minutes left in the first half.
"We had a lapse there when they went zone at the end of the
first half," Waltman said. "Everything swung in their direction
at that point."
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