AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Texas men's basketball coach Rick Barnes
replaced the iron fist with the velvet glove.
"No one would have looked at us, having lost a lottery player
(Chris Mihm) and players like Ivan Wagner and Gabe Muoneke and
figured we should be 16-5," said Barnes after the Longhorns beat
Texas A&M, 81-61, Tuesday night to break a two-game losing streak.
"I look on the floor and sometimes we have four freshmen out
there."
|  | | Chris Owens, middle, goes to the hoop for Texas between two Aggies on his way to a 15-point night. |
After the Longhorns (No. 24 ESPN/USA Today) beat Baylor 73-66 in overtime on Jan. 20,
Barnes criticized his three leading players, Darren Kelly, Chris
Owens and Maurice Evans. The team responded by losing on the road
to Oklahoma and Arizona, prompting Barnes to try to build the
team's confidence up. It worked.
Kelly scored 19 points and Texas turned in its best shooting
performance of the season in the victory over Texas A&M.
"I think this game was a result of how poorly we played against
Arizona," Kelly said. "We needed it. The ball hasn't been falling
for us, but that's only going to happen for a certain amount of
time."
Texas (16-5, 5-2 Big 12) hit 56 percent from the floor and made
a season-high 11 3-pointers. Maurice Evans made
all four of his 3-pointers and Brandon Mouton made all three of
his.
Trying to reinvigorate his team's confidence, Barnes showed the
players films of their victory against Illinois last month, as well as
Duke's comeback victory at Maryland on Saturday and Missouri's upset of
Kansas on Monday.
"Shooting makes up for a multiple of sins, doesn't it?" asked
Barnes. "But I think we really executed within what we were trying
to do."
| | | Chris Owens, middle, goes to the hoop for Texas between two Aggies on his way to a 15-point night. |
Texas held Texas A&M (6-14, 0-8) to 35 percent field goal
shooting and now has won 30 consecutive games when holding
opponents below 40 percent.
The victory gave the Longhorns their 25th consecutive home-court triumph, the fifth longest streak in the country.
Owens had 15 points for Texas while Evans had 14 and James
Thomas had 11.
"We already knew we could shoot because we've been doing it in
practice," said Owens. "Darren did a great job of creating
offense tonight. We got wide open shots and knocked them down."
Bernard King had 21 points for Texas A&M and Jesse King added 10
for the Aggies, who have lost eight in a row.
"We gave them some confidence," said A&M coach Melvin Watkins.
"They had some looks and they hit them. Where they really did
their damage was inside. When they got their inside game going, it
gave their shooters confidence."
The Longhorns went on an 11-0 run in the first half, led by two
3-pointers by Evans, to take a 27-18 lead. Texas led 38-29 at the
half and scored the first 10 points of the second half to extend
its lead to 48-29.
"When you face pressure and struggle, you can't let it take you
away from what you want to do," said Barnes. "That's what
happened to us against Arizona."
Both teams wore black armbands with the Big 12 logo in orange in
honor of Oklahoma State, which lost two of its reserve players and
six others associated with the basketball program in an airplane
crash Saturday night in Colorado. Two pilots also died.
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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
Texas A&M Clubhouse
Texas Clubhouse
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Jamaal Gilchrist is turned away by Texas' Royal Ivey.
avi: 596 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Royal Ivey dishes to Chris Owens for an open hoop.
avi: 512 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Darren Kelly makes the steal and goes the distance for a Texas jam.
avi: 581 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Chris Owens cuts through the lane and slams home the Texas rebound.
avi: 940 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Jamaal Gilchrist takes a step back and hits a long 2-point bucket.
avi: 385 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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