• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Durant, Texas get revenge vs. Oklahoma State

Feb 13, 2007 - 6:00 AM AUSTIN, Texas (Ticker) -- The sequel turned out to be a dud, but Texas won't complain.

Kevin Durant had 21 points and 12 rebounds as the Longhorns breezed to an 83-54 Big 12 Conference victory over No. 20 Oklahoma State.

Texas (18-7, 8-3 Big 12) extended the road woes of the Cowboys, who remain winless away from home in conference play this season. It also made Rick Barnes the winningest coach in school history with 209 victories, surpassing Tom Penders (1989-1998).

"I just really felt that we got better over the last two games, and I feel like we've gotten better at the time we wanted to get better," Barnes said. "Tonight for the first time during the half, they were really talking about what they needed to do for the second half, and that is what we are hoping for this time of year."

The Longhorns squashed any hope of a repeat of their thrilling first meeting of the season, methodically pulling away in the second half behind the scoring of freshman sensation Durant, who scored 15 points after the break.

The teams had delivered perhaps the best game of the season on January 16, a pulsating three-overtime contest decided on a 3-pointer by Oklahoma State's Mario Boggan with 3.2 seconds left in the final OT session.

Boggan and Durant each had 37 points in that matchup, but Monday's game was considerably less exciting - and competitive.

"I don't think they did anything too different from the first time we played them," Boggan said. "They dropped one guy down to double-team me every now and then, but it wasn't anything too different from the first time. I missed a couple of easy baskets I should've made, but other than that, I think the defense was almost the same this time around."

Durant was scoreless for the first 11 1/2 minutes but he poured in 11 points in a five-minute spurt of the second half to put Texas in command, 61-44, with 8 1/2 minutes to play.

"I think Marcus (Dove) did a good job on him (Durant) in the first half," Oklahoma State coach Sean Sutton said. "He kept the ball away from Durant and didn't let him post Marcus up close to the basket. He got his hands up on some shots and kept him off the free-throw line.

"In the second half, Durant just got going. He's the best player in college basketball, and he can score the basketball."

Freshman D.J. Augustin added 19 points for the Longhorns, who shot 68 percent (19-of-28) in the second half to beat the Cowboys (19-6, 5-5) for the 11th time in 13 games at home.

"I think they played tremendous in the second half," Sutton said. "They shot the basketball well and they finished in transition. I thought that their defense gave us a lot of problems, and they caused a lot of turnovers down the stretch in the first half.

"We got ourselves in a huge deficit and we were not able to recover. Defensively, I think they were much improved and a lot tougher."

A.J. Abrams scored 17 points, freshman Damion James added 11 and classmate Justin Mason 10 as all five starters scored in double figures for the Longhorns.

"It means that we're headed in the right direction," Abrams said. "We have had a couple of good wins in a row so hopefully that will help us build momentum into the Big 12 tournament. Coach has been telling us to put 40 minutes together. In the second half we came out focusing on finishing the game, so I think we did a good job putting it all together."

Boggan finished with 16 points and three rebounds and JamesOn Curry had 11 for Oklahoma State, which has lost all but one of their league road games by double digits.