Texas pulls away in second half to defeat Miss Valley St

After a sluggish start on the offensive end of the floor, Texas basketball cruised to a victory with a strong offensive performance in the second half against the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils.

Texas basketball's strong second half leads to a resounding 89-43 win over Mississippi Valley State

Head coach Rodney Terry and the Longhorns struggled to establish themselves offensively in the first half, even trailing for nearly three minutes against an opponent it was favored by over 40 points in the pregame betting odds. Texas did start to find a better rhythm on both ends of the floor a few minutes before halftime.

Senior big man Kadin Shedrick and senior forward Arthur Kaluma combined for an important 15 first-half points to give the Longhorns their first double-digit cushion on the scoreboard right before halftime. Texas also didn't make the most of its free-throw attempts in the first half, shooting well under 75 percent on two dozen attempts from the charity stripe.

Then, in the second half, true freshman shooting guard Tre Johnson and much of the rest of the Longhorns team woke up offensively. In the first eight minutes of the second half, Johnson scored 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 from beyond the arc.

Kaluma also kept up his tremendous scoring pace in the second half for the Longhorns. He had an equally-impressive second half, with nine more points (to bring his total to 18 for the game), three rebounds, two assists, and one steal.

Johnson's game was really a tail of two halves. He scored 17 of his 18 points (tied for a game-high with Kaluma) in the second half, on 6-of-7 shooting from the field, and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.

This game extended Johnson's streak of scoring in double figures to start his collegiate career to four games.

Texas really dominated the second half of this game, beating Mississippi Valley State by a margin of 56-20, compared to just 33-22 in the first half. The Longhorns were scorching hot shooting from the field down the stretch, going 18-of-20 from the field to close out the game in the second half.

The big second-half effort, mainly on the offensive end of the floor, led to a dominant 89-43 win over the Delta Devils at the Moody Center in Austin on Nov. 16.

Texas's win over Mississippi Valley State moves it to 3-1 (0-0 SEC) on the season. Mississippi Valley State falls to 1-3 (0-0 SWAC) after the big loss to the Longhorns today.

This game at the Moody Center against Mississippi Valley State was the final tune-up contest for Texas before the Legends Classic begins on Nov. 21 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn against the Syracuse Orange. Texas will face its most difficult opponents of the regular season so far at the Legends Classic next week against Syracuse and either St. Joseph's or Texas Tech in the final game on Nov. 22.

Check out our latest Texas basketball articles on Hook'em Headlines