AUSTIN, Texas -- After Eric Davis Jr. finally made some shots and emerged from a season-long slump, teammate Tevin Mack turned to him and said, Welcome back, E.D.Back indeed, at least temporarily. Davis scored 16 points to help Texas erase a 12-point deficit and defeat Long Beach State 71-65 on Saturday.Mack scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half. Kendal Yancy added 11 points and some critical hustle.Davis, a sophomore, hit 3 of 7 3-pointers, a marked improvement after a 6-for-41 (14.6 percent) start this season. Last season he converted 38 percent of his 3-pointers.While he tried to work through his ordeal, Davis teammates provided encouragement.They said keep shooting the ball, Davis said. I stay confident. Thats who I am.Coach Shaka Smart is not so sure of that.Absolutely not, Smart said. Youd have to be a machine to not be affected by having a string of games when things dont go your way. Hes 19 years. Nobody wants to admit those sorts of things.Evan Payne led Long Beach with a season-best 26 points,Payne, a junior, made a career-best eight 3-point baskets. His 3-pointer early in the second half gave Long Beach (2-10) a 12-point lead.But Texas chipped away, with Mack and Davis combining to score 12 straight Texas points as the Longhorns overtook Long Beach and created separation.Davis made consecutive baskets, one a 3-pointer, to give Texas (5-4) a seven-point lead with less than six minutes remaining. Macks 3-pointer from the corner put Texas ahead by eight with 4:40 to go.Long Beach coach Dan Monson said his perimeter players were supposed to help defend inside against Texas big men, but not by leaving Mack, the Longhorns most reliable shooter this season.If you dont stay with the game plan, they are gonna burn you, Monson said. He sure did.Payne averaged 12 points a game before Saturday. He scored 17 in the first half against Texas, converting 5 of 6 3-point attempts while helping Long Beach to a 34-28 lead at the break.But the 49ers could not sustain the effort.We let them hang around, Monson said. In the second half defensively we got tired and just let them in the paint too much.BIG PICTURELong Beach: Monson has believed in aggressive scheduling since the late 1990s when he was the head coach at Gonzaga, setting the stage for that schools elevation to national prominence under Mark Few. This season the 49ers are 0-6 against teams from Power Five conferences by an average of 23 points. The 49ers also lost to non-Power Five Wichita State by 37. Before beating Pepperdine at home on Wednesday, Long Beach went 0-9 on a road trip during which it traveled 15,125 miles.We played this schedule to get better, Monson said. I think we got better today, but this team needs to reward themselves with some wins.Texas: The Longhorns began the game ranked last in the Big 12 with 42.7 percent field-goal-shooting accuracy. They hit 33.3 percent in the first half against Long Beach and broke loose in the second half to hit 53.8 percent and score 43 points.ADVANTAGE TEXASBefore Saturday, Long Beach State ranked 331st in the nation in 3-point field goal defense, allowing opponents 41 percent accuracy. Texas, meanwhile, ranked 337th in 3-point shooting accuracy at 27.5 percent. But the Longhorns hit 9 of 25 against Long Beach, a pretty decent 36-percent mark.UP NEXTLong Beach faces Oregon State on Friday in Portland, Oregon. This will be the 49ers seventh game against teams from Power Five conferences away from home.Texas faces Arkansas in Houston on Dec. 17 as part of the Lone Star Shootout doubleheader. 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Its an influence in football and a big part of the game.Surprise at Cooper Cronks omission from the Australian team has given way to New Zealands realisation they face an all-North Queensland halves threat in the Four Nations.Melbourne halfback Cronk was the notable omission from Saturdays second-round Test in Coventry, with world-class NRL playmaker Johnathan Thurston shifted in one spot.Michael Morgan is promoted to start at five-eighth, which initially caught the Kiwis management and senior players off guard.All had assumed Sharks No.6 James Maloney would be next cab off the rank following a bright display in Australias tournament-opening rout of Scotland.However, assistant coach Willie Poching admits Morgan - whose representative career has mostly comprised interchange appearances - is an instant threat because of his club combination with Thurston.While hes played a lot of his rep footy off the bench and been used iin that utility role, hes a starter and hes Johnathan Thurstons partner week in-week out so theres some sense in that, Poching said.ddddddddddddWhether its disruptive to them, Im not too sure. Im sure hell handle it, hes a quality player.Poching said most of the Kiwis preparation had been inward-looking as they strive for a performance vastly better than the 26-6 loss to the Kangaroos in Perth last month.Last weeks 17-16 win over England was a fillip for the players, whose commitment to the cause couldnt be faulted, Poching said.They needed to see some fruits for all the hard work theyve been putting in, he said.Poching added that the game plan would be similar to what they employed in Perth but the attitude and execution would be better. ' ' '