AUSTIN, Texas | Alabama State went ahead early on the road against No. 16/17 Texas at the Frank C. Erwin Center, before the Longhorns were able to pull away in the second half for a 68-48 victory on Wednesday afternoon.

Gerald Liddell (Cibolo, Texas) led Alabama State (1-10) with 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the floor, in a game that was picked up on Sunday following the postponement of games for both Texas and the Hornets. Alabama State also played without head coach Mo Williams who was out for the game awaiting the birth of his child.

Juan Reyna (San Antonio, Texas) added 10 points in the loss, connecting on four of his nine shot opportunities for Alabama State who finished the day shooting 36.7 (18-of-49) percent from the floor and 33.3 (5-of-15) percent from beyond the arc. They also shot 63.6 (7-of-11) percent from the free throw line.

Meanwhile, Dylan Disu led Texas with 14 points off the bench, pacing four players in double figures including Marcus Carr with 13. Andrew Jones added 12 and Timmy Allen 10 for the Longhorns who finished the game shooting 42.1 (24-of-57) percent from the floor and just 29.2 (7-of-24) percent from beyond the arc. They also shot 92.9 (13-of-14) percent from the free throw line.

The Hornets got on the board first on a Liddell jumper just 20 seconds into the game in a homecoming of sorts for the junior who started his career at Texas. They continued to build on the lead, taking an early 8-2 and building that lead to 18-9 with 10:36 to play in the half. The Hornets held the lead behind seven straight points from Trace Young (Owensboro, Ky.) over a span of four minutes.

Alabama State took it right to the Longhorns throughout the first half, holding the lead for much of that half – 16:39 to be exact. The Hornets held the lead until a running layup by Dylan Disu with just 66 seconds remaining in the half to give Texas their first lead of the game at 27-25. The Longhorns would add a pair of free throws in the final seconds to close the half on a 7-0 run for the four-point advantage.

Texas (9-2) was able to pull away in the second half as they held Alabama State to just 33.3 (9-of-27) percent from the floor, while shooting 43.3 (13-of-30) percent from the floor.

UP NEXT
Alabama State returns to action on Tuesday, December 28, on the road against No. 24/25 Texas Tech in their final non-conference regular season game.

QUOTES from associate head coach Trey Johnson
"We were supposed to be playing Memphis on the 21st and Texas was supposed to play Rice, but both of those programs had COVID issues, so it came about because of a relationship. Coach Mo (Williams) knew he was going to be out, so he called me and asked me if I wanted to do, and I said sure that was our second cancellation, and we hadn't played since Pepperdine. It felt like we needed to play some more basketball before the break."

"It is not as tough as you think, we play Saturday and Monday in conference, so we have one day to prepare for an opponent. Our coaching staff is pretty good, and I am one of the assistant coaches who prepare scouting reports so myself and coach Tyrone Levett dove right into it to come up with a good game plan to go out here and give ourselves a chance."

"We wanted to force them to play from the outside, we knew Timmy Allen had been pretty good in the paint. We felt like size wise we matched up with them pretty good and we wanted to force them to play from the perimeter and play over the top of us. We felt like defensively they weren't as good running their half-court offense, so we wanted them to run as much offense as possible and control the pace of the game. To try and give ourselves a chance to set our defense. I said if they forced us into 20 turnovers they would win, I knew exactly what Chris Beard coached teams can do and we wanted to do the same thing to them."

"It always helps when you have inside information, and Gerald (Liddell) was able to give us some information. Anything though was from watching their film, seeing on film. It's a lot different seeing them in person because they get after it. They really cause havoc on the floor."

"Gerald actually played for coach Mo on his AAU team, so it was kind of a no brainer. He came in the summer. After he announced he was going in the transfer portal, obviously a lot of schools started reaching out, but he pretty much had his mind made up."

FOLLOW THE HORNETS
For complete coverage of Alabama State University men's basketball, follow the Hornets on social media @BamaStateMBB (Twitter), /BamaStateSports (Facebook), @BamaStateSports (Instagram) or visit the official home of Alabama State athletics at BamaStateSports.com.