Austin, Texas: No. 7 Texas Routs Grambling State 93-62 as Vokietaitis Scores 26

No. 7 Texas beat Grambling State 93-62 on Monday night at the Moody Center in Austin, a wire to wire win built on a fast start and a big night inside from junior center Matas Vokietaitis. Texas is 3-0 for the first time with three straight wins of at least 30 points since the 2003-04 season, and the Longhorns have averaged 100 points a game through the first three games.

Vokietaitis runs the paint

Vokietaitis scored 26 points on 8 of 12 shooting and made 10 of 12 free throws in 23 minutes. He took a game high nine rebounds, finished two points short of his career high, and leads Texas in scoring at 21.3 points a game. Texas outscored Grambling 46-18 in the paint and won the rebounding battle 45-34.

Texas scored 30 of the first 35 points, led by as many as 31 in the first half, and went to halftime up 55-27 despite missing 10 free throws in the half. Freshman guard Joe Sterling sparked the early run with eight straight points in just over a minute. The lead reached 81-41 on two Vokietaitis free throws with 9:56 to play, and the margin grew to 44 points twice in the final minutes before Grambling cut into it late.

Help from the bench

Sterling added 13 points off the bench, all of them in the first half, and went 3 of 4 from three point range with three assists and two steals. Marcus Spears Jr. scored 12 points, Elyjah Freeman had 11 points and six rebounds, and David Punch finished with 10 points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks. The Texas bench outscored the Grambling bench 41-26, and the Longhorns shot 50.8 percent from the field against 35.9 percent for the Tigers, with a 14-0 edge in fast break points.

Mekhi Fitts led Grambling State (1-1) with 13 points and Antoine Shannon had 12. Isaiah Miranda, the 7 foot 2 senior who scored 29 points in Grambling's 89-87 win over Northern Illinois a week earlier, picked up three fouls in the first three minutes, two of them while guarding Vokietaitis, and finished with eight points in 23 minutes. He missed all six of his three point attempts.

Head coach Sean Miller had stressed rebounding and protecting the ball before the game, and Texas delivered on both counts. The Longhorns now leave the Moody Center for the first time this season. Texas faces Baylor on Sunday, November 15, at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, with tipoff at 2 p.m. on ESPN. Grambling State visits No. 24 Kentucky next Monday.