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Augustin, Texas surge past Stanford

Mar 29, 2008 - 4:51 AM HOUSTON (Ticker) -- D.J. Augustin and a second-half surge was all Texas needed to advance to the "Elite Eight."

Augustin had 23 points and seven assists and Damion James scored 18 as second-seeded Texas pulled away from third-seeded Stanford, 82-62, in a semifinal matchup out of the South Regional on Friday.

A.J. Abrams chipped in 12 points for the Longhorns (31-6), who will face Memphis in the regional final on Sunday.

"The minutes our bench gave us, coming in and putting a body on their post players (was key)," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "We had a plan to back off certain guys and try to help (on the big guys)."

Texas led, 43-34, at the break but Stanford started the second half strong and closed within 52-51 on a 3-pointer by Landry Fields with 12:53 left to play.

But the Longhorns would respond, going on a decisive 20-3 burst to take a 72-54 bulge with 3:47 remaining. Augustin had eight points during the run and the Cardinal missed 10 straight shots over a span of 9:24.

"Texas (is a) very, very good basketball team," Stanford coach Trent Johnson said. "Probably as good of a team as we have played all year. They made a series of runs, and I thought we responded, and then I thought we got caught up in the emotion of the game there when it was 52-51. But they made shots we didn't."

Barnes liked the pace and mindset from his team during the spurt.

"We're going to get aggressive," Barnes said. "Run, push tempo, hoping that would help us the last 8-10 minutes and we could break it open."

For the game, Texas shot 49 percent (32-of-65) from the field and are one win away from its first Final Four appearance since 2003.

After averaging just 9.0 points through the first two games of the tournament, Augustin was 10-of-18 from the floor, topping the 20-point mark for the 19th time this season.

"My teammates did a great job of moving without the ball and knocking down open shots," Augustin said. "Our defense was the key to the win. We tried to put pressure on their guards."

The Longhorns also held Stanford's guards Mitch Johnson and Anthony Goods to a combined 2-of-17 shooting from the floor.

"We shot here the last two days and I shot very well," Johnson said. "For whatever reason we didn't hit shots we usually hit. That was the tell-tale of the game."

Stanford (28-8) had scored the game's first basket but that would be its only lead of the game as Texas took control for the rest of the first half.

The Longhorns held a four-point lead midway through the half but slowly stretched the advantage to as many as 41-29 on a layup by Dexter Pittman with 1:24 to play, before the Cardinal cut it to nine at the break.

Brook Lopez had 26 points and 10 rebounds to lead Stanford, which shot just 34 percent (22-of-65) from the floor, including 6-of-17 from the arc.

"I think I just stopped playing aggressively and started throwing up poor shots," Lopez said. "I thought we played well for the most part. There were just a couple possessions, like Coach said, where shots didn't go down or we didn't pick up a loose ball or just broke down defensively."