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Abrams leads Texas to Big 12 final

Mar 15, 2008 - 10:30 PM By Marc Bowman PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- A.J. Abrams and a methodical Texas attack proved too much for Oklahoma.

Abrams led a second-half surge as the eighth-ranked Longhorns cruised to a 77-49 victory over the Sooners in the Big 12 Conference semifinals on Saturday afternoon.

Top-seeded Texas (28-5) advances to the championship game on Sunday for the fourth time in the last five years, facing the winner of Saturday's other semifinal game between Kansas and Texas A&M.

The Longhorns balanced a strong inside game with Abrams' long-range accuracy to run away from the Sooners late in the game, hitting 50 percent (27-of-54) of their shots from the floor and outscoring the Sooners, 23-7, over the game's final 11 minutes.

"Coach (Rick Barnes) boosted my confidence a lot last night after we talked about my influence on the the team," Abrams said. "We knew we had to raise the bar, penetrate more, and lock in on defense."

After Cade Davis' 3-pointer with 18:02 left in the second half tied the game at 36-36 for Oklahoma, Abrams scored 11 of his 24 points on a 26-6 run that gave Texas a commanding lead midway through the second half.

Abrams, who went 7-of-12 from the arc, knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to break the tie, starting an 11-0 run which left Texas ahead, 47-36, with 14:13 to play.

"It feels real good right now, just finally knocking down some shots," Abrams said. "My teammates did a good job of setting screens for me and D.J. (Augustin) did a great job of penetrating and kicking the ball tonight. Fortunately, I was knocking in shots."

Augustin closed the run with a layup on his way to 17 points and Damion James added 13 and pulled down nine rebounds for the Longhorns.

"I thought D.J. was masterful today, the way he worked the game," Barnes said. "He did an unbelievable job today knowing he had to come out in some way and somehow get the pump primed for A.J. He's gotten himself into a rhythm, and we don't want to break his rhythm."

Oklahoma (22-11) was led by freshman Blake Griffin's 20 points and 13 rebounds, while Tony Crocker added 11 points. The Sooners shot 33 percent (20-of-61) from the field and 17 percent (4-of-23) from the arc as Crocker shot just 1-of-7 from 3-point range.

It was the team's worst 3-point shooting game in their Big 12 tournament history.

"I think it started just with us letting them play their game and play the way they wanted to play," Griffin said of Texas running away in the second half. "We didn't do a good job of getting back on transition and slowing them down.

"When you do that, and they have a point guard like they do, and shooters like they do, and big ones like they do, it can get out of control fast."

The Sooners jumped out to a 13-6 lead early in the first half, but they missed their next seven shots - going without a field goal for almost six minutes. As a result they fell behind, 15-14, with 9:14 left in the half and trailed 36-29 at the break.