• Recap
• Bleachers

Texas cruises past North Florida

Dec 15, 2010 - 4:17 AM Austin, TX (Sports Network) - Cory Joseph led all scorers with 18 points and Gary Johnson posted a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds, as 22nd- ranked Texas earned a lopsided 70-48 victory over North Florida at Frank Erwin Center.

Tristan Thompson finished with nine points and eight rebounds, while Jordan Hamilton contributed nine points and six boards for Texas (8-2), which demolished Texas State 101-65 on Saturday and have won five of its last six.

"Defensively, I thought we did a lot of good things," Texas head coach Rick Barnes said. "We talked about it, getting on the floor really early. We've been letting our opponents really deflate our defense. We were picking it up at 23, 24 feet as opposed to getting in the backcourt, and making teams work against us and bringing it up."

Jerron Granberry and Brian Holmes each went for 10 points apiece for North Florida (4-6), which had has dropped three straight. Jimmy Williams ended with eight points in defeat.

"If you look at our schedule, Texas plays a lot of ranked opponents and we haven't played anyone," North Florida head coach Matthew Driscoll said. "The physicality that Rick [Barnes] possesses with his guys and the way he has his guys play like that has been very impressive."

Hamilton's layup capped a 9-0 run to put Texas up 12-4 in the early going and it would be up 21-7 after a Jai Lucas jumper with just over nine minutes to play in the opening half.

Joseph drained a three-pointer in the closing seconds to give the Longhorns a 35-16 advantage heading into the break.

Texas came out of the locker room and quickly built a 24-point lead, 43-19, nearly three minutes into the second after a Johnson make.

The hosts never let North Florida threaten the outcome, as they held a comfortable double-figure lead the rest of the way, en route to their 25th straight non-conference victory in Austin.

Game Notes

This marked the first-ever meeting between these two programs on the hardwood...Texas shot 34.9 percent from the field and made 5-of-17 from three- point range, while North Florida made only 28.3 percent of its shots and only 3-of-16 from beyond the arc...The Longhorns won the rebounding battle, 51-34.