Texas Basketball: 3 takeaways from imposing win over Texas State

3) Takeaways from Texas basketball’s win over Texas St

Texas finally wins the battle on the glass

In a few of the wins for the Longhorns this season coming into the Texas State game, they still managed to get outrebounded by a good margin. That was especially evident in the Maui Invitational Championship Round win back on Dec. 2, by a narrow two-point margin, over the Tar Heels. Texas was outrebounded by a margin of more than a dozen in that game.

Texas didn’t necessarily need every one of their 39 rebounds to beat Texas State, but it was surely nice to see senior center Jericho Sims nearly come away with a double-double. Maybe this one solid and efficient outing for Sims was just what he needed to finally see his game take off. Sims registered eight points, nine rebounds (five offensive boards), one assist, one block, and one turnover.

He did that while shooting 2-of-6 from the field and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. That was one of the better games of the season so far for Sims. And that’s definitely a good sign for a potential turnaround in his game.

The guards also got involved to help out the Texas effort on the boards. Redshirt junior shooting guard/wing Andrew Jones had six rebounds, and junior guard Courtney Ramey had five.

Texas could definitely use more help from their bench in the frontcourt rotation on the boards. Junior forward Kamaka Hepa, sophomore Brock Cunningham, and junior Gerald Liddell, all just combined for four rebounds in more than 20 minutes on the floor.

Nonetheless, seeing the Longhorns beat a team by a margin of more than five rebounds in the battle on the boards is hopefully a sign of improvement heading into conference play in this department.