The Texas starting five, who all scored in double digits against the Red Raiders

Everything was clicking for the Longhorns on Tuesday night as they crushed Texas Tech in Austin for the second straight year, coasting to an 80-51 victory in front of a sellout crowd. The win gave Texas (20-7 overall, 10-3 Big 12) their eighth-straight season with at least 20-wins, and also likely ensured that the team will be playing in the Big Dance. A four-game losing streak to end the season could certainly change that, but for now let’s just enjoy the victory.

Texas Tech (17-11, 6-7) opened up the game with an early 2-0 lead. It was the only one they’d hold all game. Texas quickly jumped ahead and stretched the score to 20-9 by the second media timeout. By halftime, the Longhorns had nearly doubled the Red Raiders’ output, heading to the locker room with a 48-26 lead.

Once again, Texas found offense from everybody in the starting lineup. For the first time all season, no Loghorn hit the 20-point plateau, but all five starters did reach double digits in scoring. By comparison, the high-scorer for the Red Raiders finished with nine.

Early on, Justin Mason was the spark. Jay scored twelve points in the first half, making both of his three-point attempts. He finished the night with thirteen points and four assists while only turning it over once.

Damion James again had a big game, and is proving to be a key player in the stretch run for the Longhorns. He was hitting midrange jumpers and throwing it down inside. But most importantly, he was able to control a ton of the Tech misses. James finished with a double-double on the night, scoring twelve and grabbing ten rebounds — nine of them on the defensive end.

When the Horns were in a man scheme, A.J. Abrams was again tabbed to frustrate the opponent’s high-scoring guard. For Tech, that was Jarrius Jackson, who had only seven points on the night. Two of those seven came on technical free throws, making the Horns’ defensive effort even more impressive.

Once again, it seemed that having Abrams focus on a defensive task opened up his offensive game. He took very few bad shots on the night, even hitting a pair of two-point buckets — something practically unheard of for the guard this season. Abrams was 4-of-9 from behind the arc and finished the night as the leading scorer with 18 points.

For much of the night, Texas was able to sag back on defense, daring Tech to shoot over them. The Red Raiders hit only 20 percent of their three-point attempts (3-15), making it necessary to try to drive the lane for easier buckets. But oftentimes Kevin Durant was hanging out in the middle, using his incredible wingspan to disrupt the offense.

One of the only things Texas did poorly on Tuesday night was bite far too often on pump fakes from the Red Raiders. But help defense was really solid, and oftentimes the open look disappeared almost instantaneously. Connor Atchley and Dexter Pittman both had a particularly hard time staying on the ground against those fakes, and saw limited minutes as a result. To be fair to Atchley, it’s unclear if his nine minutes were completely in response to his three fouls and poor defense, or if he was still feeling the effects from the injury he suffered against Baylor on Saturday night.

The Longhorns took their largest lead with 8:38 still to go in the ballgame. But up by 33 points, Barnes started milking the clock with a fifth of the game still left. For some reason, he left the starters in to essentially dribble around the perimeter for another five minutes. Perhaps he wanted them to keep working on their defense, but the argument could easily be made that our overworked starters need any breathers they can get.

In the end, all five did see some rest as Barnes cleared the bench. Harrison Smith and Ian Mooney both saw the floor and earned a huge cheer from the remaining crowd. The fans even roared when Mooney fouled a Tech player; after all, that does go in the official record.

This weekend’s game now has a lot less pressure attached to it. The Longhorns have their 20 wins and ten conference victories. At this point, more wins are just gravy. But the threat of a four-game losing streak does still loom large with games at OU, vs. Texas A&M, and at Kansas to finish the year. Add in a loss to the 5 or 6 seed in Oklahoma City, and things could get dicey.

If Texas can carry over the defensive efforts seen at home against Oklahoma State and Tech, they have a very great shot at their 11th conference win up in Norman. And, as a result, the Horns would also eliminate the tiny shred of doubt that still surrounds their NCAA future. Enjoy the win, and I’ll have your Oklahoma re-preview sometime tomorrow afternoon.