games.OFFENSIVE WOESThe Magic have struggled recently on the offensive end.We have a ed the

It will be a classic confrontation between No. 23 Texas youthful balance and Northwesterns experience when the two teams square off Monday in the semifinals of the 10th annual Legends Classic at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.The contest follows the first semifinal game between Notre Dame and Colorado. The losers of Mondays games square off at 2:30 p.m. CST Tuesday while the winners meet at 5 p.m.The Longhorns are off to a 3-0 start, most recently defeating Eastern Washington 89-52 on Thursday. Sophomore swingman Tevin Mack paced five Texas players in double figures with 19 points off the bench.No Texas player saw more than 28 minutes of action during the contest (28 by freshman center Jarrett Allen and senior guard Kendal Yancy). Eight UT players saw at least 19 minutes of action.At this point last season we had played better competition than weve played this year so everythings relative, Texas coach Shaka Smart said after Thursdays win. Now the question is: Can we go on the road? The competition level will go up in New York. We will see better athletes. We will see more size. We will see better teams. How do we respond to that?In his two games, Mack paces Texas with an average of 16.5 points per contest. He leads six different Texas players who are averaging double figures in scoring through their first three games. Five Longhorns are averaging at least 5.0 rebounds per game.Texas has excellent on the defensive end as well, especially at running shooters off the 3-point line. Opponents are shooting just 33.5 percent from the field against the Longhorns. Texas has limited its first three opponents to 21.8 percent (17-of- 78) shooting from 3-point range and held Eastern Washington to 14.3 percent (3-21) from beyond the arc in Thursdays victory.Through the Longhorns first three contests, Yancy ranks second on the squad in scoring (13.7 ppg), leads the team in steals (5) and is tied for the team lead in minutes (29.3 mpg). He has converted 54.2 percent (13-24) from the floor and 84.6 percent (11-13) free throws this season.Were pretty confident right now and we are in a good place, Yancy said. We just have to keep improving. We have a lot of young guys who are willing to give it their all, willing to improve and grow every day. Just the energy they bring is good for the team in general.Northwestern (2-1) heads to the Big Apple off a buzzer-beating 70-68 loss at Butler on Wednesday.We went into that game expecting to win, so it hurt, Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. In the past, maybe it was okay to go to Butler and play them to the last shot of the game. To us, thats not what we were looking for. I sensed an anger in the team last night, which I liked. They know it was a game we very well could have got. We just didnt close the deal.Sophomore forward Vic Law led four Wildcats in double figures with 17 points, including hitting 5 of 6 3-point attempts. The contest featured 17 ties and 16 lead changes.Im confident in how our teams going to be, Law said. But Im angry that we let it slip away. We have to win games like (the loss to Butler). Its as simple as that.Law has enjoyed a solid return to the Northwestern attack after missing all of the 2015-16 campaign due to shoulder injury. Hes the teams leading scorer at 20.3 points per game, has paced the Wildcats in scoring in all three games and tallied at least 17 points in each contest, including a career-high 26 vs. Eastern Washington on Nov. 14. Through three games he is shooting 64.5 percent from the field (20-of-31).Northwestern returns 61.4 percent of its scoring and 71.4 percent of its rebounding from a year ago. The Wildcats welcome back three starters and 10 letter winners overall from a team that won 20 regular-season games for the first time in school history.Its been 42 years since Texas and Northwestern have played on the basketball court, and the teams have split two previous meetings. The Wildcats won 73-71 on Dec. 21, 1965 in Memphis, Tenn., while the Longhorns won 63-59 on Dec. 23, 1974 in Austin.The Wildcats and Longhorns already have one common opponent this season: Eastern Washington. Northwestern beat the Eagles 86-72 on Nov. 14 in Evanston while Texas rumbled past EWU 85-52 three nights later in Austin. CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Kemba Walker didnt mind a bit kicking back and watching the Charlotte reserves play the entire fourth quarter of a blowout win over the Orlando Magic.Especially with an important road game at Cleveland coming up on Saturday night.Its always nice to get a little bit of a break, Walker said. (The starters) played well so we were deserving of it, I thought.Nic Batum and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist each had 16 points, and the Hornets routed the Magic 109-88 on Friday night for their third straight victory. Walker had 15 points in 25 minutes, and the Southeast Division leaders held the Magic to 37 percent shooting while outrebounding them 59-40.Charlottes starters didnt even play in the fourth after the Hornets opened a 21-point lead with a late third-quarter surge.The Hornets (14-9) have won six of eight, but now head out on a five-game road trip beginning in Cleveland.Its good momentum, obviously, coach Steve Clifford said. Whenever you are going to go on an extended trip, its good to win the last home game before you leave. You want to build as much of a cushion as you can.Batum, who has 39 rebounds in his last four games, missed out on a chance at a triple-double because he didnt play in the fourth quarter with the game out of hand. He finished with nine rebounds and seven assists.This could easily have been a classic trap game for Charlotte, but the Hornets took all the drama out of it with a dominant third quarter.They opened a 52-46 lead at halftime behind a late second-quarter push led by Kidd-Gilchrist, who had 14 points at the break on 6-of-8 shooting. Charlotte extended the margin to 21 late in the third period as Walker began to heat up, beating defenders off the dribble with his quickness and knocking down jumpers.Just a lot of breakdowns in the third quarter in particular, on the defensive end with our transition defense, offensive rebounds, Magic ccoach Frank Vogel said.dddddddddddd This is not a great offensive rebounding team, but they burned us tonight and they hit 3s every time they got one, so we didnt match back up. We just had more breakdowns across the board.Evan Fournier had 14 points for the Magic.TIP-INSMagic: Fournier was assessed a technical foul in the first half for arguing a call. ... Nikola Vucevic played despite a right corneal abrasion and had seven points in 22 minutes. ... Orlando went 9 of 34 on 3-point attempts.Hornets: Have beaten the Magic four consecutive times. ... Walker has reached double digits in every game this season. ... Batums streak of double-doubles ended at three games.OFFENSIVE WOESThe Magic have struggled recently on the offensive end.We have a very slim margin for error, Vogel said. We have to get guys to play more the right way, more often.BALL MOVEMENTThe Hornets moved the ball extremely well on offense against a Magic team that looked a step slow.We are a very unselfish team, Batum said. Were going to move the ball and involve everybody. The guys off the bench did a great job to finish the game, they tried to move the ball, play as a team and we did a good job of that.CAVS COMING UPWalker said hes eager to face the Cavaliers, who will also be playing on the tail end of a back-to-back.Its going to be tough playing against the defending champs, of course, in their building, Walker said. We lost there already, but we want to go out and play as hard as possible, same thing as tonight. Play some great defense, offensively make some shots and just play a good game.UP NEXTMagic: Orlando returns home to host the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night.Hornets: Charlotte travels to Cleveland on Saturday night. The Hornets lost 100-93 there earlier this season. ' ' '