Boyette leads No. 6 Texas past No. 9 Mississippi State
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Amani Boyette scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as No. 6 Texas beat ninth-ranked Mississippi State 53-47 on Wednesday night.
No other Longhorns scored more than nine points in a game they won despite shooting 39 percent and turning the ball over 23 times.
Boyette, a 6-foot-7 center, scored eight during the third period, when Texas (6-0) created some separation with a 9-2 push that built an 11-point lead.
Victoria Vivians led Mississippi State (5-1) with 12 points, but the Bulldogs' leading scorer for the season missed 15 of 20 shots.
Mississippi State shot 31.5 percent and committed 19 turnovers.
Texas led 26-21 after an ugly first half that included 21 turnovers - 12 by the Longhorns. Texas threw a procession of careless passes but shot with considerably more accuracy, outshooting Mississippi State 41.7 percent to 32.1.
When the Longhorns managed to find teammates with their passes, instead of opponents or nobody at all, they scored fairly easily inside - 18 points in the paint.
Mississippi State missed all 10 of its 3-point attempts in the half.
TIP-INS
Mississippi State: Coach Vic Schaefer, a former head coach at Sam Houston State and assistant at Texas A&M, is well connected in Texas. An Austin native, his roster includes four players from the state, including 6-7 Teaira McCowan, a high school all-American last season. . This was the first game for the Bulldogs against a nationally ranked team. They defeated Samford, Grambling, Mississippi Valley State, Norfolk State and Savannah State by an average of 56.4 points.
Texas: The Longhorns are 17-0 the last two seasons in regular season non-conference games. They were 11-0 last season, including three victories against top-10 teams. .The Longhorns will face three ranked teams during a stretch of four games. They defeated then-No. 4 Tennessee on Sunday in Knoxville before hosting Mississippi State. No. 16 Stanford comes to Austin on Dec. 13.
UP NEXT
Mississippi State hosts Tennessee State on Sunday.
Texas is at Arkansas-Little Rock on Sunday.
