Freshman standout Tre Johnson poured in 21 points and Kadin Shedrick added 14 points and 11 rebounds as Texas cruised to a 90-68 win over Delaware State on Friday in Austin, Texas.
The Longhorns (6-1) never trailed, leading by 19 points at halftime and by as many as 24 midway through a workmanlike second half and in the final minutes. Delaware State never got closer than 17 after halftime.
Johnson has led Texas in scoring in five of his seven career games. Tramon Mark added 15 points and Arthur Kaluma hit for 13 as the Longhorns captured their sixth straight win after a season-opening loss to Ohio State in Las Vegas.
Robert Smith led Delaware State (3-5) with 22 points while Martaz Robinson scored 15, Kaseem Watson racked up 11 points and 10 rebounds and Corey Perkins added 10 points.
The Longhorns burst out of the gate, scoring 10 of the first 12 points, capped by a layup by Kaluma at the 17:30 mark of the first half. Texas stoked its advantage to 15 when Johnson poured in a 3-pointer with 12:11 left in the half, then upped the margin to 25-6 on Tramon Mark’s basket from beyond the arc just more than a minute later.
Delaware State found its footing and culled its deficit to just 12 when Robinson hit a pair of free throws with 3:08 to play in the half. The Longhorns responded with a 9-0 run to build their biggest lead of the game before a layup by Watson made it 41-22 at the break.
Johnson and Kaluma had 10 points apiece to lead all scorers before halftime as Texas outshot the Hornets 43.8 percent to 27.3 percent. The Longhorns also forced nine turnovers that they converted into 13 points over the first 20 minutes of play.
Smith’s seven points paced Delaware State in the half.
The teams played about even for the first four minutes of the second half, but that wasn’t getting the visitors any closer to Texas’ substantial lead and it never did.
–Field Level Media
