Texas Basketball: 2 studs, 1 dud, from grind-it-out win over Baylor

Stud No. 2: Sir’Jabari Rice, SG/SF

Texas’ best player in this game, without a doubt, was Rice. The fifth-year senior and former New Mexico State Aggies grad transfer was on fire from deep.

Rice’s clutch baskets from deep and from the charity stripe kept Texas ahead by multiple possessions throughout much of the final five minutes of this game. He finished up this game by tying a season-high with 21 points (also a team-high) on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line.

This is just the third time this season that Texas has shot better than 35 percent from beyond the arc in Big 12 play while making at least eight shots from deep. And considering how Rice contributed half of those makes from deep, I would say he was a huge part of the offensive efforts for the Longhorns in this win over Baylor.

Rice made some other valuable contributions in this game too as he registered six rebounds and one assist.

That now makes it back-to-back games for Rice where he’s put up 21 points off the bench for Texas. He put up 21 points on 50 percent shooting from the field in Texas’ loss to Tennessee over the weekend.

Rice also just became the first reserve player in the Big 12 this season to have back-to-back 20+ point outings.

If there is one Longhorns player that has performed well enough in the last couple of games for Texas to start out this really difficult four-game stretch unscathed, it’s definitely Rice. His offensive output will be much needed when Texas takes on the Kansas schools in the next two games.