Matas Vokietaitis Scores 26 as No. 7 Texas Thumps Grambling State 93-62

Grambling State came to Austin with a 7-footer who had just scored 29 points on 10-of-12 shooting. By the first media timeout, that big man had two fouls and a seat on the bench, and Texas never let the night become a contest. Matas Vokietaitis scored 26 points with nine rebounds in 23 minutes, the No. 7 Longhorns built a 28-point halftime lead, and Texas rolled to a 93-62 win over Grambling State on Monday night at Moody Center.

Texas is 3-0, and all three wins have come by at least 31 points. Joe Sterling added 13 off the bench, Marcus Spears Jr. had 12, Elyjah Freeman scored 11 and David Punch finished with 10. The Longhorns dominated the paint 46-18, owned the fast-break column 14-0 and got 41 points from their reserves. Grambling State, fresh off a thrilling opening win over Northern Illinois, never led for a second and fell to 1-1.

Lights Out Early

It took 41 seconds for the tone to arrive. Vokietaitis went to the line on Texas' first trip and split a pair, then Punch picked off a pass and Austin Goosby found Freeman for a dunk to make it 3-0 at 19:19. The early whistles were just as telling. Texas kept feeding the post, Isaiah Miranda kept getting caught in foul trouble, and Grambling's big man was headed to the bench by the 16:57 mark. Texas led 10-3 at the first media timeout.

Grambling's fouls piled up at a ridiculous rate, with the Tigers reaching seven team fouls roughly five minutes into the game. Sterling punished them in a different way, splashing a transition three for a 16-3 lead that forced a Grambling timeout at 13:39. By the under-12 stop it was 22-5, and the Tigers had more turnovers (six) than points (five).

Sean Miller's defensive wrinkle mattered here. Texas showed a 1-3-1 zone and dared Grambling to shoot over it, and eight of the Tigers' first 12 attempts were threes. That is not where Grambling wanted to live. At the under-eight timeout, Texas led 32-10, and Miranda was 1-of-8 from the field and 0-of-6 from deep.

The Longhorns stretched it from there. Goosby threw a lob to Spears for a dunk during a 5-0 burst to close the half, and Texas went to the locker room up 55-27. The only real complaint from the first 20 minutes was at the line, where Texas went 13-of-23.

Vokietaitis Works the Middle

Vokietaitis had 11 points at the break and treated the second half like a personal clinic. After Grambling opened the half with two quick baskets, the junior center converted a three-point play, Freeman added a breakaway dunk off a Grambling inbounds miscue, and the Tigers burned another timeout at 17:47.

Then Vokietaitis scored six straight points. Later the big man knocked down four more free throws and finished at the rim again before the under-eight timeout. By the end of the night Vokietaitis had 15 second-half points, a 10-of-12 performance at the free-throw line and a stat line of 26 points, nine rebounds (four offensive), a steal and a block on 8-of-12 shooting. Vokietaitis did not attempt a three and did not need to.

Through three games, Vokietaitis has been the most reliable thing Texas has. The junior went 9-for-9 in the 109-59 opener against Chicago State, scored 16 against Gardner-Webb, and on Monday Vokietaitis set the tone for an entire game by making Grambling's best player defend the post.

The Bench Brought the Juice Again

Texas has talked about wanting its reserves to change games, and the bench delivered for the third straight outing. Sterling, a freshman shooter who has already made a habit of hitting threes in bunches, went 4-of-6 from the field and 3-of-4 from deep for 13 points in 16 minutes, with three assists and two steals. Spears scored 12 on 4-of-7 shooting, despite a 4-of-8 night at the line, and finished more than one highlight play. Bo Ogden hit two threes and scored eight, and Amari Evans added five.

The starters were steady rather than loud. Freeman went 4-of-6 for 11 points with six rebounds. Punch was everywhere defensively, posting 10 points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks in 21 minutes. Isaiah Johnson scored only two points on 1-of-5 shooting but handed out four assists, and Goosby had three points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals.

There was also a nice moment late. John Clark, making a Texas debut after recovering from a hand injury, converted a three-point play at 1:25 for Clark's first basket as a Longhorn. It also ended an ugly stretch, because Grambling had just ripped off a 17-2 run with a lot of Texas rotation players still on the floor. That run turned a lead that peaked at 44 into a 31-point final margin, and it is the kind of sloppy finish a Miller team will hear about in film.

The Numbers Behind the Rout

Texas shot 30-of-59 (50.8 percent) from the floor and 6-of-16 (37.5 percent) from three. The Longhorns outrebounded Grambling 45-34, grabbed 13 offensive boards, and turned the ball over only eight times while forcing 13 Grambling turnovers. Texas finished with 11 steals and a 15-9 edge in points off turnovers.

Most of the damage came in close. The 46-18 paint advantage was the cleanest summary of the matchup, and Grambling's 24 fouls sent Texas to the line 42 times. The Longhorns made 27 of those, which is 64.3 percent and the one number that keeps showing up in the "fix it" column. Against SEC competition, 15 missed free throws will cost games.

Grambling shot 23-of-64 (35.9 percent) and 6-of-26 (23.1 percent) from three. The Tigers did crash the glass for 12 offensive rebounds, but they were outscored 14-0 in transition and could not get to the rim with any consistency against a longer, deeper front line.

Grambling's Rough Night in a Tough Month

Mekhi Fitts was the Tigers' best player, scoring 13 points with six rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 34 minutes off the bench. Antonio Shannon scored 12 and grabbed seven rebounds, Brandon Hardy made 3-of-4 shots for nine points, and Isaiah Howard went a perfect 4-of-4 for nine more off the bench.

Miranda, who shredded Northern Illinois in the opener, finished with eight points on 3-of-13 shooting and went 0-of-7 from three with four fouls in 23 minutes. Dwayne Pierce, who had 19 points and eight assists against NIU, managed seven points on 3-of-12 shooting with one assist and three turnovers. Hassan Washington fouled out in nine minutes without scoring.

Coach Patrick Crarey II has embraced a brutal early schedule, and the SWAC program will not get a breather. Grambling heads to Kentucky on Nov. 16 and has a date with Duke in December. Nights like this come with that territory, and Fitts and Howard at least gave the Tigers something to build on.

What It Means for Texas

Three games, three blowouts. Texas has beaten Chicago State by 50, Gardner-Webb by 48 and Grambling State by 31, and the Longhorns have done it with a rotation that goes 10 deep and a center who keeps drawing fouls and finishing through contact. The 1-3-1 look on Monday also gave future opponents something new to prepare for.

The caveats are real. The final four minutes were sloppy, the free-throw shooting is still shaky, and the competition is about to change. Texas plays away from Moody Center for the first time this regular season when it faces Baylor on Sunday, Nov. 15, at the San Antonio Hoops Showdown at Frost Bank Center. The full numbers are in the box score (opens in a new tab).

Sources: ESPN box score and team stats, Texas Athletics game center, Burnt Orange Nation via Yahoo Sports, Grambling State Athletics, Fox Sports, The Sports Leader. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Vokietaitis owned the paint, the bench kept the energy high, and Texas did what a top-10 team should do in a guarantee game. Sunday in San Antonio is where the Longhorns find out what all these blowouts are really worth.

Photo: Brooklynn Hawthorne/University of Texas Athletics (file photo from Texas vs. Gardner-Webb, Nov. 5, 2026).