Courtney Ramey and Greg Brown scored 17 points each as No. 11 Texas jumped to a big lead early and poured it on in a 79-63 win over Sam Houston State on Wednesday in Austin.

Ramey made his first five 3-pointers and Brown did the majority of his work in the second half, scoring nine of his points and taking six of his game-high 10 rebounds after halftime.

Texas (6-1) led by 11 before the Bearkats even scored and by 18 at the half. The Longhorns led by as many as 27 points on two occasions in the second half.

Andrew Jones hit for 13 points for Texas, whose current ranking is the highest in coach Shaka Smart's five-plus seasons on the Longhorns' bench.

The Bearkats' Zach Nutall led all scorers with 23 points, with Donte Powers adding 11. Sam Houston State (3-5) is now 0-5 against Division I teams this season, with its other defeats coming to SMU, Boise State, Texas Tech and LSU, all on the road.

The Longhorns scored the first 11 points of the game and never looked back, amassing as much as a 22-point advantage after Ramey's 3-pointer with 6:22 to play in the half.

Texas was up 44-26 at the break and went 8-for-17 from 3-point range over the first 20 minutes. Ramey, who led the Longhorns with 12 points, was 4-for-4 from beyond the arc while Jones was 3-for-4 on his long-distance shots.

Nutall, the Bearkats' leading scorer entering the game, had five points to pace Sam Houston State before halftime.

Texas took any potential suspense out of the game when it opened the second half with an 11-4 run that staked it to a 55-30 advantage three minutes into the period.

The Longhorns were scheduled to play their Big 12 opener Sunday against No. 2 Baylor, but that game was postponed after the Bears could not meet the minimum player threshold under conference COVID-19 protocols. The conference requires each team to have at least six healthy players.

--Field Level Media