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James, Mason lead as Texas crushes Texas Tech

Jan 18, 2009 - 3:39 AM LUBBOCK, Texas (Ticker) -- Damion James scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half and Justin Mason added 12 of his 15 after the break to lead No. 11 Texas to a 71-49 victory over Texas Tech on Saturday.

Gary Johnson chipped in 15 points and A.J. Abrams added 11 for Texas (13-4, 2-1 Big 12), which bounced back from a loss at No. 5 Oklahoma with a dominating second half.

Leading, 30-24, at the break, the Longhorns used a 14-3 run to break the game open. James started the spurt when he converted a three-point-play at the 15:20 mark and capped the run with a 3-pointer with 10:59 left to push the lead to 56-37.

Mason added six points during the spurt and was 5-of-8 from the field in the contest. The junior guard also tied a career high with 10 rebounds.

Texas pushed the lead to as much as 67-42 on Matt Hill's layup with 5:48 left and cruised home from there.

Johnson carried the load in the first half, scoring 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting. He scored the first six points of the game for the Longhorns and added four points during a 10-2 run that made it 30-19 with 2:45 left in the half.

After jumping out to an 8-2 lead early, Texas Tech went nearly seven minutes without a field goal.

Alan Voskuil scored 12 points for the Red Raiders (10-7, 0-2), who shot just 34 percent (18-of-53) en route to their third straight loss.

"This is the most frustrated I've been personally in basketball, honestly," Texas Tech coach Pat Knight told the Daily Toreador. "I wish this team had my personality. We aren't competing right now. That's part of it, we just gotta figure out a way."

Mike Singletary was the only other player to reach double figures for Texas Tech, collecting 10 points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes. Singletary's presence on the inside was the lone bright spot in the area for the Red Raiders, who were outrebounded, 37-25.

"The second half, we couldn't shoot," Knight told the Daily Toreador. "We couldn't pass. We couldn't guard. We couldn't rebound. We couldn't play. We didn't have one guy that looked like he played in the Big 12. We're an awful basketball team. I'm an awful coach right now. This team is bad right now.

"There's not one thing to analyze. They kicked our (butt) in the second half, up and down. Every player got his (butt) kicked. I got my (butt) kicked. That's the bottom line. There's no sense in sitting there sugarcoating it."