J’Covan Brown made his first start since his freshman season and flourished in the role.

Brown, a junior, tied a career-high with 28 points — 14 in each half — as host Texas (1-0) cruised to a 82-46 victory over Boston University Sunday in the first round of the Ticket City Legends Classic.

Last year, Brown came off the bench in all 36 of Texas’ games and became a reliable sixth man in head coach Rick Barnes’ rotation. But against Boston, Brown started his first game since March 6, 2010, and made the most of it.

Brown buried six of his first 11 shots — including a pair of 3-pointers — as the Longhorns took a 31-21 halftime lead. Then, he had 14 of Texas’ first 19 second-half points, helping the Longhorns stretch their advantage to 50-29 with 15:08 left.

Texas will rely heavily on Brown to carry the offense as it tries to break in a trio of freshmen starters. One of those freshmen, guard Julien Lewis, finished with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Two of the others — forward Jonathan Holmes and guard Myck Kabongo — finished with seven and six points, respectively.

Boston, which lost its season opener against Northeastern, fell to 0-2 for just the second time since 2005-06. The Terriers shot just 29.8 percent from the field and were led by Darryl Partin, who had a team-high 14 points.

D.J. Irving added 10 for Boston, which was picked to finish first in the America East by the league’s coaches.