Freshman Sheldon McClellan scored a career-high 23 points off the bench to help Texas pull away from visiting Texas-Arlington 80-62 on Tuesday night.

McClellan beat his previous high of 16 points in the first half when he totaled 17 on 7-of-8 shooting to help the Longhorns (6-2) build a 35-28 halftime edge.

It was a good thing for Texas that McClellan provided a scoring boost, because leading scorer J’Covan Brown never found his groove. Brown came into the game averaging 20.6 points, but he missed his first eight shots, failing to register a field goal until the 6:03 mark of the second half.

Brown finished with 11 points on 2-of-11 shooting.

Myck Kabongo — the Big 12 leader in assists — had 13 points and seven assists for the Longhorns, who moved to 7-0 all-time against Texas-Arlington.

Kevin Butler scored 12 points for the Mavericks (4-3), who shot just 33 percent to fall to 3-49 all-time against teams from the Big 12.

After Texas-Arlington cut it to 46-39 early in the second half, Texas went on a 17-9 run and took a 63-48 lead on a pair of Brown free throws with 8:57 remaining.