On Thursday, the Longhorns finished off a three-game sweep of their rivals from Oklahoma. A night later, Texas repeated the feat against their most-hated in-state foes. The Longhorns scrapped their way to a 70-58 win over Texas A&M in last night’s Big 12 semifinal, earning their first three-game sweep of the Aggies since the 1991-92 season, when both schools were still in the Southwest Conference.

Unlike the first two games between these two teams, this one was never a laugher. There were four ties and ten lead changes, and neither team led by more than seven points until midway through the second half. Even then, the Aggies were able to trim the margin back down to four points with just five minutes to play. A 10-2 run by the Longhorns finally put the game out of reach, with Gary Johnson icing it at the free-throw line in the final two minutes.

Although this game had the exact same number of possessions as the first game in Austin, it felt completely different. A&M’s defense did an excellent job turning back the drivers and trapping Tristan Thompson when he caught the entry pass a few feet off the block. Texas turned it over on 20.9% of its possessions and missed a handful of easy finishes at the rim in the first half. Despite all of that, the Longhorns had one of their most efficient offensive performances of the season.

The key was another strong performance on the glass. On top of an excellent 49% shooting percentage for the game, the Longhorns also grabbed 52.4% of their missed shots. That number was so good, in fact, that it was the team’s third-best performance of the season, behind only their drubbings of Coppin State and Texas State. With the Longhorns making nearly half of their shots and adding 20 second-chance points, Texas A&M’s upset hopes were dashed.

On defense, the Longhorns allowed a respectable 1.01 points per possession. The Aggies managed that level of efficiency largely by drawing fouls and getting to the line. Texas A&M had a free-throw rate of 56.3% — the second-highest allowed by Texas all year — and they converted on 21 of their 27 attempts.

That strategy of manufacturing points obscured the fact that Texas did an excellent job defending in the half-court. After falling behind 14-7 just seven minutes into the game, the Longhorn defense held the Aggies to just one field goal over the next eight minutes, allowing Texas to reclaim the lead. For the game, the Horns limited A&M to just 35.4% from the field and 27.3% behind the arc, just one night after the Aggies had shot 57.8% against Missouri and made 50% of their threes.

Jordan Hamilton had his second-straight solid performance, scoring 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting. After making just 31.4% of his shots in the team’s final six regular season games, Hamilton has a field-goal percentage of 51.6% in the two Big 12 tournament games, including a 40% success rate behind the arc. Having a more-efficient Hamilton was Texas’ number-one concern heading into March. So far, things are looking up, but the true test will come for him today against Kansas.

Once again, Hamilton’s strong effort was matched by freshman Tristan Thompson. The big Canadian posted his third double-double in the team’s last four games, scoring 14 points to go with 13 rebounds. Of those, nine of Thompson’s boards came on the offensive glass. His individual offensive rebounding percentage was a whopping 32.8% for the game.

The biggest concern in the win was questionable play from the other big men. Johnson had a painful game until his six points in the final few minutes. He struggled with foul trouble most of the way, and missed his first six shots from the field, including a dunk attempt. Off the bench, Alexis Wangmene never got into the flow of the game, and only showed up in the box score thanks to his three fouls in six minutes.

Fortunately, J’Covan Brown played well off the bench, scoring 15 points on an efficient 5-of-8 shooting night. He knocked down three triples, including two in a row midway through the second half that helped the Longhorns pull away momentarily. Like Hamilton, Brown’s resurgance is coming at just the right time. He’s shooting 62.5% in the Big 12 tournament after making just 31.3% of his shots in the team’s last eight conference games.

Next up: vs. Kansas (31-2); 5 P.M. CT, Saturday