Texas fans are eating up everything Matas Vokietaitis is serving against BYU

The Texas Longhorns put the world on notice as they outpaced the BYU Cougars through the first 20 minutes of their NCAA Tournament first-round matchup, building a 46-37 lead by halftime.

Leading that charge was Texas center Matas Vokietaitis, who racked up an astonishing 15 points and 11 rebounds in the first half.

Vokietaitis pushed the Horns ahead of the Cougars on both ends of the court, contributing to Texas's nine-point lead as well as helping the Longhorns out-rebound BYU by 10 board. To put it lightly, Texas fans were loving what Vokietaitis was doing.

Even experts of the game couldn't stop themselves from praising Vokietaitis's first-half performance, including legendary rebounder Charles Barkley, who said, ""He never goes out the lane. I love him."

Yes, BYU's star freshman AJ Dybantsa led both teams in scoring with 20 minutes by halftime, but even his double-digit effort wasn't enough to put the Cougars ahead of the Longhorns with Vokietaitis in Sean Miller's lineup.

Heading into the first-round game of the NCAA Tournament, Vokietaitis had averaged 15.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Clearly, he was on pace to blow those averages out of the water to help his team topple the Cougars.

The best part of Vokietaitis's first-half performance? He only had one personal foul, meaning he wasn't leaving the game anytime soon.

Vokietaitis shot 60 percent from the field in the first half, and tacked on three points from the charity stripe, playing as though he was genuinely unstoppable as the Horns battled the Cougars for a spot in the Round of 32.

Even those who followed the tournament the closest didn't see this performance coming for Vokietaitis. Just one game earlier, when Texas earned its spot in the field of 64 with a win over NC State, Vokietaitis contributed "just" 15 points and eight rebounds in the entire matchup.