Horns coach Barnes earns 500th career win
By: Brandon Dunn
Updated: November 23, 2010
AUSTIN, Texas -- Jordan Hamilton scored 25 points and No. 20 Texas gave coach Rick Barnes career victory No. 500 Tuesday night, 84-50 over Sam Houston State.
Longhorns senior point guard Dogus Balbay added a career-high 14 points on and unusual scoring night for him.
Texas (4-1) played its first game as a ranked team this season. The Longhorns rose to No. 1 for the first time in school history last January before falling out of the rankings just six weeks later.
Barnes is 500-250 in 24 seasons as a head coach, with 298 wins in 13 years at Texas. He is just the 12th active major college coach to reach No. 500.
Antuan Bootle scored 16 points for Sam Houston State (2-1).
Hamilton was 9 of 12 shooting, Balbay was 6 of 8 and Texas shot 55 percent as a team. Defensively, Texas held Sam Houston State to 29 percent shooting.
Texas shot just 3 of 10 from 3-point range but scored 40 points in the paint and went 15 of 19 from the free throw line.
Balbay was the only returning starter from last season's squad that started 17-0 and rose to No. 1. Texas started this season unranked, then returned after a 3-1 start that included a wins last week over No. 19 Illinois and a 68-66 loss to No. 5 Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The Longhorns were sluggish through the first 10 minutes against Sam Houston State. Balbay, hardly a scoring threat in most games, led the Longhorns with six points in that stretch.
Balbay and J'Covan Brown had layups off steals before Hamilton made the game's first 3-pointer from the left wing. Consecutive turnovers by Sam Houston State's Nafis Richardson led to baskets by Hamilton and Corey Joseph as Texas opened up a 23-8 lead late in the first half.
Hamilton started finding his shooting stroke, scoring 11 in the first half. The Longhorns forced 11 turnovers -- and had 12 of their own -- in taking a 33-18 lead into halftime.
Texas pushed the lead to 46-26 early in the second. Balbay scored on consecutive layups and Jai Lucas beat two defenders for a twisting shot in the lane to put the Longhorns up by 20 with 14 minutes to play.
Hamilton, who is averaging 25 points after an up-and-down freshman season, was able to pick and choose his shots against the smaller Bearkats and had little trouble working his way in for easy looks at the basket. His dribble past one defender for a short bank shot over another put Texas up 60-39.
