Texas Longhorns Bounce Back, Beat Southern Behind Matas Vokietaitis' Career High

The Texas Longhorns men's basketball team handled business at home against Southern.

Texas Longhorns guard Dailyn Swain is congratulated by center Matas Vokietaitis during the first half against the Southern University Jaguars at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

Matas Vokitetaitis scored a career-high 28 points and the Texas Longhorns bounced back from their most brutal loss of non-conference play, taking care of business against the Southern Jaguars in a 95-69 win at the Moody Center on Monday night.

Texas (7-3) got embarrassed at home against Virginia in a 88-69 blowout loss last week, causing head coach Sean Miller to admit that the Longhorns are "at a crossroads" as non-conference action comes to a close.

But with a sneaky Southern team that features the fourth-leading scorer in the country in guard Michael Jacobs (22.3), the Longhorns didn't mess around.

Matas Vokietaitis' Big Night for Texas Longhorns

Texas Longhorns center Matas Vokietaitis shoots a free throw during the first half against the Southern University Jaguars at Moody Center. | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

Southern came into the game battle tested after road matchups against Arkansas, Marquette and Washington. Though the Jaguars lost all three of those games, this included a 99-93 double-overtime loss to the Huskies in Seattle.

That said, Vokietaitis, who finished 14 of 14 from the foul line and tied a program record for most free-throw makes without a miss, proved to be too much for the Jaguars' defense from the start of the game. He also added six rebounds and a block.

He was joined by Dailyn Swain, who finished with 10 points, six rebounds and five assists. Jordan Pope (18 points), Simeon Wilcher (14 points) and Camden Heide (11 points) also finished in double figures.

Jacobs was held in check before leaving in the second half with an injury. He was held below his average at 11 points before exiting. Malek Abdelgowad led Southern with 17 points off the bench while AJ Barnes added 10 points

Texas jumped out to a 13-10 lead thanks to seven early points from Vokietaitis along with a pair of triples from Pope and Heide. Swain eventually helped give the Longhorns a 26-15 lead and they never looked back, leading by double digits the rest of the way. Vokietaitis followed this up with a pair of dunks.

The Longhorns led 46-27 at halftime but Brandon Hardy came out of the locker room and hit back-to-back triples for Southern.

However, this was the last real burst that the Jaguars had for the remainder of the game.

Vokietaitis stayed busy from the free throw line throughout the second half and helped Texas cruise to a win.

The Longhorns will now turn their focus to Friday night for one of their toughest games of the season when they visit No. 5 UConn in Storrs.