By Wendell Barnhouse
Big12Sports.com Correspondent
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After wandering without a map for the second half of the Big 12 season, Texas appears to have found its way.
The seventh-seeded Longhorns have won three in a row for just the second time in 2015 following their 65-53 victory over 10th-seeded Texas Tech (13-20) Wednesday in the first round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Championship.
Texas (20-12) advances to the quarterfinals and will take on No. 2 seed Iowa State at 6 p.m. The Cyclones swept the season series.
The victory over the Red Raiders boosted the Longhorns’ NCAA Tournament resume. UT entered the Big 12 Championship listed as a bubble team. There’s one way to erase all doubt – go four-for-four here and snag the Big 12’s automatic bid.
“We're looking to win the Big 12 tournament,” said Isaiah Taylor, who had 12 points and seven assists. “We have Iowa State ahead of us (Thursday).”
Texas Tech was intent on extending its season and spoiling Texas’ plans. The Longhorns had a 30-26 edge at halftime and three minutes into the second half that margin hadn’t changed. But then the Red Raiders lost freshman center Norense Odiase, their biggest body when he picked up his third foul.
That allowed UT’s big body to dominate. Cameron Ridley, a 6-9, 285-pound junior, started to dominate around the rim. Over a four-minute stretch, the Longhorns’ muscled their way to four three-point plays, two by Ridley. He scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half.
“I just wanted to come out the second half and do the things we do in practice and work on playing harder, dunking in and creating angles for my teammates and opportunities for myself,” Ridley said. “I'm going to play a lot more aggressive than I have before, because that's what the team needs from me.”
With Odiase out, Texas Tech went to a zone defense. At times this season, Texas’ offense has bogged down with players standing and the ball sticking, especially when attacking a zone. That wasn’t the case this time.
“From the 16‑minute markdown to about the six‑minute mark, we were maybe as efficient as we've been all year offensively,” Barnes said. I thought Isaiah's demeanor has been as good as it has all year just in terms of running things for us.”
The Longhorns finished with 17 assists on 25 field goals, their highest assist total in the last six weeks. Texas moved the ball with intelligence and speed, finding its post players in position to finish around the basket.
“It got pretty physical during that stretch when they sort of dominated the boards,” Texas Tech coach Tubby Smith said. “If we could have gotten another scorer … we needed another scoring punch and someone else to step up and make some shots.”
Texas’ size advantage was evident in a 39-24 rebounding edge and an 18-3 advantage in second-chance points.
“I believe we had a lot of breakdowns, it started off with rebounding,” said Texas Tech’s Toddrick Gotcher, who had a team-high 12 points. “We didn't rebound the ball well. They got a lot of second‑chance points and you gotta give 'em credit for what they did.”