Texas Basketball: 5 victory takeaways vs. Iowa State
3. Front court bench play pivotal
The impact that the bench play from Texas basketball had in this game wasn’t felt too much in terms of scoring. It was the quality minutes that the Horns got out of sophomore forward Jericho Sims and true freshman Kamaka Hepa that helped the rotation excel in this win.
When talented freshman forward Jaxson Hayes didn’t show up for the Horns in this game, it was up to the two aforementioned underclassmen and senior center Dylan Osetkowski to pick up the pace. Hayes was knocked out of the game with a concussion after taking a shot to the face after just 19 minutes on the floor.
Texas big man Jaxson Hayes took a shot to the face and is being evaluated, per UT. It's not considered a concussion and hasn't been ruled out for today.
— Brian Davis (@BDavisUT) March 2, 2019
Hayes wasn’t ruled out of the game at any point, so he should be good to come back for Texas before the “Big Monday” showdown against Texas Tech on the road. The way Osetkowski played in this game was good too, as he provided the Horns 13 points, five rebounds, two assists, one steal, and one block.
Yet, the point here is that Hepa and Sims are stepping up in the right place at the right time. Similar to what the Horns got out of Febres here, under the radar contributors stepped up when it was needed most. Sims and Hepa only combined for three points and four rebounds, but they gave Smart some good minutes off the bench with the depth thinning among the starting bigs.