AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Kelsey Lang scored all 12 of her points in the first half, giving ninth-ranked Texas a nice start toward a 68-48 victory over Texas-San Antonio on Saturday in the season opener for both teams.
Texas guards Brianna Taylor and Empress Davenport scored 11 and 10 points, respectively, all of Davenport's coming in the second half.
Carlie Heineman, a freshman guard, led UTSA with 15 points hitting five 3-pointers.
Both teams played incredibly sloppy basketball as UTSA had 28 turnovers and Texas 23.
Imani McGee-Stafford, a 6-foot-7 Texas center who was All-Big 12 second team last season as a sophomore, is out indefinitely while recovering from a stress fracture in her left leg.
UTSA cut a 16-point halftime deficit to three. Texas helped UTSA by missing the front of three straight one-and-one free-throw situations midway through the second half. Davenport, a 71 percent free-throw shooter last season, missed the first two. Davenport atoned with three baskets and four free throws as Texas regrouped and gradually pulled away.
Lang led Texas to a 31-15 halftime lead. The 6-foot-5 sophomore converted 6 of 8 shots in the half. She scored so efficiently that other facets of her game might have gone unnoticed: five rebounds, two blocks and two steals in the half. She played only six minutes in the second half, because of foul trouble.
The Longhorns could have assumed a much bigger halftime lead, considering they shot 50 percent. But the hurt themselves with 12 turnovers, an issue that is not new for them. They averaged more than 18 a game last season, the most in the Big 12 Conference.
UTSA was even worse, though, turning the ball over 16 times in the half while hitting just 5 of 21 shots - 23.8 percent inaccuracy.
The Roadrunners went 6:26 without scoring during the half and 7:48 without a field goal that helped Texas go on a 17-0 run.
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Texas: Longhorn guard Brady Sanders missed the game with a right hand injury that she suffered in practice on Friday. She's out indefinitely. Sanders, now a junior, started 28 of the Longhorns' 34 games last season, averaging 7.2 points a game and hitting 37.5 percent of her 3-point shots.
UTSA: Nearly half of the Roadrunners' 16 turnovers in the first half came during a short period. They committed seven during a span of 4:36, starting at the 13:12 mark.
UP NEXT:
Texas visits Stanford on Thursday
UTSA hosts Abilene Christian on Wednesday
