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Texas throttles West Virginia

Jan 18, 2015 - 5:07 AM Austin, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Cameron Ridley scored 19 points to power 20th-ranked Texas to a 77-50 rout of No. 16 West Virginia on Saturday at the Erwin Center.

Myles Turner added 16 points off the bench and Jonathan Holmes contributed 16 with 11 rebounds for the Longhorns (13-4, 2-2 Big 12), who had lost two straight.

Texas had a week off since last Saturday's 11-point setback at Oklahoma State and played swarming defense, limiting West Virginia to just 24.1 percent shooting.

"I really liked our practices leading up to this week," said Texas coach Rick Barnes. "I thought that's where we got better really, where our focus in practice was a lot better. We competed harder in practice. I really like how these guys prepared mentally and focused. Our defense was terrific."

Gary Browne was the lone West Virginia player in double figures with 14 points. The Mountaineers (15-3, 3-2 Big 12) entered the contest with the most road and neutral-site wins in the country at nine.

Juwan Staten, West Virginia's leading scorer at 15.8 points per game, made just 1-of-7 from the field and finished with three points.

Jonathan Holton scored the first five points of the game for West Virginia, but the Mountaineers went cold from there and the Longhorns heated up with an 18-2 run.

Ridley scored eight during the burst for Texas, capping it with a short jumper for an 18-7 lead. Tarik Phillip hit a pair of free throws for West Virginia's lone points during the span before Browne hit a 3-pointer to end the Mountaineers' nearly nine-minute field goal drought.

West Virginia got as close as seven and trailed by nine with 3 1/2 minutes left in the half, but Texas closed with a 7-2 run to take a 37-23 advantage to the intermission.

The Mountaineers got only as close as 10 in the second half, as a free throw by Elijah Macon made it 54-44. Texas followed with an 18-3 run to put it away.

"It comes down to a degree of whoever has the greatest will," said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. "They played the game the way they wanted to play. We certainly didn't play the way we wanted to play. They imposed their will on us and we didn't respond to it very well."

Game Notes

West Virginia hadn't scored fewer than 64 points all season ... The Longhorns held a 44-32 rebounding advantage ... Texas scored 21 points off 17 West Virginia turnovers ... The Longhorns committed 19 turnovers, leading to just eight West Virginia points ... Texas, which won three games against West Virginia last season, improved to 6-3 all-time against the Mountaineers ... The Longhorns will visit TCU on Monday, while West Virginia has a week off until hosting TCU next Saturday.