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. Texas A&M meets Arizona in the other game.Darius Slayton Giants Jersey .com) - The Montreal Canadiens will try to halt their longest losing streak of the season when they host the struggling New York Islanders in tonights clash at the Bell Centre. Darius Slayton Youth Jersey . -- In a span of seven Washington Redskins offensive plays, Justin Tuck sacked Robert Griffin III four times. http://www.nygiantsfanaticshop.com/Black-Phil-McConkey-Giants-Jersey.html?cat=905 . Now, with Game 6 set for Fenway Park and an 8:07 p.m. ET first pitch, the Detroit Tigers face the unenviable task of having to beat the Boston Red Sox twice, on the road, to advance to the World Series. Evan Engram Youth Jersey . - Blake Griffin had 30 points and 12 rebounds, J. Harry Carson Jersey . Perhaps Carroll was so prepared for a break because he believes there is very little the Seattle Seahawks need heading into the off-season. "I dont see anything that we need to add. We just have to get better," Carroll said.NEW YORK -- It was almost a perfect day for Serena Williams. She coasted into the US Open quarterfinals with her most impressive performance of the tournament. She surpassed Roger Federer with an all-time record 308th Grand Slam match victory.Even the weather was unexpectedly glorious as she took the Ashe Stadium court.If only the groans hadnt just died down from big sister Venus loss in a dramatic third-set tiebreaker, eliminating any chance of an all-Williams semifinal, Labor Day would have been exactly as drawn up.Instead, Serena would settle for steady progress, another career milestone and a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Yaroslava Shvedova.I just feel like Im going out there doing what I need to do, Serena said. Im not overplaying, Im not underplaying. Im just trying to play my way into this tournament.Of course, few players but Williams can call a 68-minute, straight-set win in which she never faced a break point, had 11 aces, a 93 percent first-serve percentage and ripped 28 winners to Shvedovas 11, playing your way in.Williams also had the fastest serve of the tournament at 126 mph, another apparent sign that her right shoulder is pretty stable, and said afterward that she couldnt believe how consistently she served.I dont think I really served in the summer until I got here to New York, she said. It was a really tough summer for me. Maybe thats the key.However she got here, she is still looking ahead to Grand Slam title No. 23, which would be a new Open-era record, while now looking bacck at Federers all-time major match victory mark.ddddddddddddts a huge number, Williams said after some prodding. I think its very significant actually. I think its something that just really talks about the length of my career, in particular. Ive been playing for a really long time but also, given that consistency up there, thats something Im really proud of.As she approaches her 35th birthday later this month, she admits that she even amazes herself.I definitely never thought I would be playing still, she said. Now, I dont see when Im going to stop because Im just enjoying these moments out here, getting to break records that I didnt even know existed or I didnt know was possible.As she readies for a quarterfinal berth against No. 5 Simona Halep, her first seeded opponent in the tournament, Williams said she fully expects to get Haleps best.I just think with everyone I play, they play a step up and above their ranking, she said. To me, it doesnt really matter who I play because I have to expect theyre going to play the match of their life. Thats how I go into these matches now.The bad news for Halep, who has lost seven of eight meetings with Williams, is that Serenas comment the other day that I dont feel like Im Serena out there yet took on a more hopeful tone after Monday.Shes coming, Williams promised. She hasnt quite come out yet, though.Almost perfect. ' ' '