Fontenette scores 20 points to help No. 13 Texas beat No. 19 Mississippi State

Fontenette leads Texas past Mississippi State

ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands — Ashleigh Fontenette scored 20 points to lead No. 13 Texas to a 73-55 victory over No. 19 Mississippi State on Thursday night in the Paradise Jam.

Fontenette was 9 for 10 from the field for Texas (3-1), which used a 10-0 run to take a 33-24 lead, its largest lead of the first half, before Mississippi State’s Mary Kathryn Govero hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to close the gap to six at 33-27.

The Longhorns used a 14-4 spurt to start the second half and put the game out of reach. They led 65-39 midway through the period before Mississippi State closed the gap.

Brittainey Raven added 14 points for Texas, and Kathleen Nash had 12.

Armelie Lumanu led Mississippi State (4-1) with 14 points, and Alexis Rack had 13.

The Longhorns were eliminated by the Lady Bulldogs in the first round of the NCAA tournament last March.

“This was a great team effort tonight,” Texas coach Gail Goestenkors said. “This was a chance for us to show how much we’ve grown as a team. (Mississippi State) returned all of its starters, and that’s a veteran team. This win really shows how far we’ve come from last year to this point.”

Texas outrebounded Mississippi State 45-33.

“We’ve been telling the team all week that the team with the most rebounds after 40 minutes would be the team that would win this game,” Goestenkors said. “Mississippi State had done a great job on the boards up until this point, and we hadn’t done a great job.”