Texas Closes Half on 21-0 Run, Seven Longhorns Hit Double Figures as No. 7 Texas Routs Gardner-Webb 98-50

For about five minutes on Thursday night, Gardner-Webb hung around. Then the lights went out on the Runnin' Bulldogs. Texas closed the first half on a 21-0 run, held Gardner-Webb without a field goal for 11 minutes and 57 seconds across the break, and cruised to a 98-50 win at Moody Center that moved the No. 7 Longhorns to 2-0.

Matas Vokietaitis, playing on his 22nd birthday, led the way again with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and seven rebounds in only 20 minutes. But the story of this one was not a single star. Seven Longhorns scored in double figures, Texas shot 60.7 percent from the floor, and a defense that forced 23 turnovers and racked up 13 steals turned a guarantee game into a track meet. Three days after a 50-point win over Chicago State, Sean Miller's team posted back-to-back wins of 45-plus points to open a season for the first time since 1989-90.

A Brief Contest, Then a Wall

Gardner-Webb actually led this game. Seth Brown hit a jumper at 18:58 to make it 4-3, and that was the last time the Runnin' Bulldogs were ahead. Texas answered with a 16-2 burst over roughly five and a half minutes, and freshman Austin Goosby's three at 13:17 made it 19-6.

To Gardner-Webb's credit, it did not fold right away. Jamias Ferere hit a jumper at 10:12 to pull within 23-15, and after an Elyjah Freeman one-handed dunk off an interception made it 33-18 at 6:41, Gardner-Webb scored again at 5:56 to sit at 33-20. At that point, it was a game a ranked team would probably win by 20 and move on from.

Then Texas stopped giving up baskets entirely. Over the final 5:55 of the half, the Longhorns scored 21 straight points. Joe Sterling and Isaiah Johnson both hit threes during the run, Vokietaitis added four points inside, and Johnson capped it by sinking three free throws with four seconds left. Texas went into the locker room up 54-20, and Gardner-Webb had not scored in the final six minutes of the half.

The Defense Was the Headline

Texas' offense has been fun to watch, but the defense is what turned this into a 48-point game. Gardner-Webb shot 8-of-26 (30.8 percent) in the first half and made just 1 of 12 threes. Texas was in passing lanes constantly, and every deflection seemed to end with a Longhorn running the other way.

The numbers are stark. Texas won points off turnovers 31-8, fast-break points 28-2 and paint points 54-10. Through the first half alone, the Longhorns held a 28-6 edge in the paint and an 18-2 edge in transition. The Runnin' Bulldogs finished 15-of-45 from the field (33.3 percent), 5-of-23 from three, and assisted on only six baskets all night.

The long drought spanning halftime was the backbreaker. For 11:57 of game time, Gardner-Webb did not make a field goal, and Texas outscored the visitors 33-2 during that stretch. Goosby's transition dunk at 10:54 of the second half made it 74-24, and Sterling's three at 10:12 pushed the lead to 77-24, the largest margin of the night at 53.

Miller, speaking after the game, acknowledged the challenge of keeping a team sharp when the margin balloons. "There's a lot of things in a game like this that sometimes can go wrong when the score becomes lopsided," he said, before praising the steady effort and unselfishness of his group. Judging by the way Texas kept defending deep into the second half, the message landed.

Goosby's Hands, Sterling's Shot, Spears' Spark

Goosby, the freshman point guard who dished eight assists in the opener, flipped the script and became a defensive menace. He finished with a game-high five steals, plus 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting, a perfect 4-of-4 at the line, four rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes. It was his first double-figure scoring game in college, and it came in only his second try.

Sterling stayed hot. After hitting four threes in the opener, the freshman made 3-of-5 from deep and 4-of-5 at the line for 13 points in 16 minutes. Through two games he looks like the most reliable perimeter shooter on the roster, and in a rotation still waiting on Saint Mary's transfer Mikey Lewis to return from foot surgery, that matters.

Marcus Spears Jr. scored 13 off the bench for the second straight double-figure game of his college career, going 5-of-7 from the field and 3-of-4 at the line with four rebounds and two steals in 21 minutes. He also delivered one of the night's best moments, poking the ball loose and finishing with a windmill dunk. The teenage freshman plays with a confidence that is hard to teach.

The Veterans Kept It Simple

Vokietaitis was efficient rather than spectacular this time, which is its own kind of compliment. His 6-of-8 shooting came with a 4-of-7 night at the line, and he logged his 51st career double-figure game in just 20 minutes. Two games in, the junior center is 15-of-17 from the field.

Johnson, the Colorado transfer, scored 15 on 4-of-7 shooting, 2-of-4 from three and a perfect 5-of-5 at the line, though three turnovers kept it from being a clean night. David Punch had 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting with six rebounds, and Freeman added 10 points, four rebounds and four assists while supplying the evening's highlight package: a baseline poster dunk and a windmill on the break to go with that interception slam in the first half. It was Freeman's 43rd double-figure game of his career.

Amari Evans did not shoot well (2-of-6, 0-of-3 from three), but he set a career high with four assists and did not turn the ball over. Even Coleman Elkins got in on it, scoring four points in two minutes and throwing down Texas' final basket on a dunk with 37 seconds left.

As a team, Texas went 34-of-56 from the floor and 24-of-31 from the free throw line, outrebounded Gardner-Webb 37-23 with 28 defensive boards, and committed only 10 turnovers. The bench outscored Gardner-Webb's reserves 36-23. It was the second straight game Texas shot at least 60 percent after going 40-of-64 (62.5 percent) in the 109-59 opener against Chicago State.

Gardner-Webb's Rough Opening Week

Mikhail Pocknett and Ferere led Gardner-Webb with 12 points apiece. Pocknett, a transfer from Buffalo, did most of his damage at the line (6-of-9) but also committed five turnovers. Ferere needed 11 shots to get his 12. Jackson Skipper made two threes for six points, and Brown added six.

Coach Jeremy Luther's team was picked to finish last in the nine-team Big South by the league's coaches, and the schedule did it no favors. The Runnin' Bulldogs opened at No. 4 UConn on Monday and lost 86-46, meaning they have dropped their first two games to top-10 opponents by a combined 88 points. With a roster full of newcomers from Division II, junior colleges and the transfer portal, the more important dates are still ahead. Gardner-Webb opens its home schedule against Erskine next.

What It Means for Texas

The Longhorns are 2-0 all-time against Gardner-Webb, and this was the first meeting since the 2009-10 season. The more relevant history is what Texas has done in the last four days. The Longhorns have won by 50 and 48, shot better than 60 percent twice, and shown a rotation that runs 10 deep without a clear drop-off.

The caveat is obvious: Chicago State and Gardner-Webb are not SEC teams, and the exhibition loss to St. John's in late October is a reminder that the real tests come against size and physicality. Still, what stood out on Thursday was not shot-making against a weaker opponent. It was the defense. Thirteen steals and 23 forced turnovers suggest a team that is buying into the less glamorous parts of the job.

Next up for Texas is Grambling State at Moody Center on Monday, Nov. 9. The full numbers are in the official box score (opens in a new tab), and Texas Athletics posted its own game recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: Texas Athletics official box score and recap, ESPN, Houston Chronicle via Yahoo Sports, Southern Sports Today, HornSports, Sports Illustrated, Gardner-Webb Athletics. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Two games, two blowouts and a defense that suffocated Gardner-Webb for most of a night. Texas is playing like a team that believes the No. 7 ranking undersold it.

Photo: Brooklynn Hawthorne/University of Texas Athletics.