LAHAINA, Hawaii -- Rick Barnes has been stressing to his Texas players to take what the defense gives them. So far this season that has been 3-pointers, and the Longhorns are hitting them.
Freshman guard Daniel Gibson scored 19 points and the 15th-ranked Longhorns reached double figures in 3-pointers for the fourth straight game Wednesday in a 95-70 victory over Tennessee in the third-place game of the Maui Invitational.
"I don't usually question our shot selection except at the end of games," Barnes said. "Our offense has done a good job of taking what they give us."
Texas (3-1) bounced back from an 82-80 semifinal loss to Iowa with an impressive effort up front as well.
"I told the team today would be a character game," Barnes said. "Would we respond not being able to win the tournament? I told them this was a big game and if they didn't think so it would be in March."
It didn't faze Texas that the Maui Invitational, which is sponsored by EA Sports, used experimental rules that included a 3-point line that was 20 feet, 6 inches from the basket, 9 inches farther than the NCAA line.
Texas was 10-for-23 on 3s in the opening-round win over Chaminade and 11-for-21 in the loss to Iowa.
The Longhorns missed 10 of their first 12 shots from beyond the arc against Tennessee (1-2), but Gibson made the first two of six straight for Texas. Sydmill Harris hit the third and Kenny Taylor made the last three as Texas opened a 66-51 lead with 13:39 to play.
The Longhorns, who finished 10-for-25 from beyond the arc, went up 80-59 with 8:04 to play on -- what else? -- a 3 by Kenton Paulino.
"Coach says just take what the defense gives you and we did that even in the first half, we just didn't hit them," Gibson said.
Taylor stayed on the party line.
"In the second half they wore down a little bit," he said, "but we didn't do anything different. Coach says just take what the defense gives you."
Six Texas players finished in double figures. Jason Klotz had 10 points and 11 rebounds in leading the Longhorns' 44-27 advantage on the boards. Texas, which shot 52 percent overall for the game (33-for-63), outscored Tennessee 44-22 in the paint.
Taylor was 4-for-8 on 3s, while Harris made all three he took and Gibson, who had six assists, was 2-for-8.
"I thought Daniel Gibson was terrific. You could see he was feeling it," Barnes said. "He's learning. I was impressed with the way he played defensively here. He does a great job of putting the ball right where it needs to be and we have a group who, when they get their feet set, are going to make shots for us."
C.J. Watson had 19 points for Tennessee, which lost 94-81 to No. 11 North Carolina in the semifinals. The Volunteers had closed to 48-44 on a 3 by Chris Lofton with 17:22 to play when Texas began its 3-point barrage.
"When we got it to a two-possession game and then Gibson hit two 3s against our zone and they hit some more against the man-to-man," Tennessee coach Buzz Peterson said. "They've got four terrific shooters and I thought a lot of their shots were challenged, some were not. And then their inside guys are strong and physical."
Scooter McFadgon scored 13 points for Tennessee, which was 8-for-24 on 3s.
"This is a long season and we can benefit from this," Peterson said. "We played a physical team in Texas and a fast team in North Carolina and hopefully we can learn from this and carry it over into the season."
