Atkins, No. 9 Texas rout Texas Tech 90-39 (Jan 20, 2018)
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) No. 9 Texas got a bit of a breather between games against two of the nation's top teams.
Ariel Atkins scored 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and the Longhorns had their most lopsided Big 12 victory ever, 90-39 over Texas Tech on Saturday.
''I thought that our team played a pretty complete game, and that's something that we were striving for no matter who the opponent is or what the score is of the game,'' Texas coach Karen Aston said. ''We are trying to train ourselves to have the mentality of playing at a certain level.''
Brooke McCarty had 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists for Texas, which had a 30-3 run during a stretch when Texas Tech (7-12, 1-7) missed 13 of 14 field goals. That put the Longhorns up 56-19 midway through the third quarter.
The big win in Lubbock came five days after Texas (15-3, 6-1 Big 12) came up just short at home in a 75-71 loss to No. 1 Connecticut - and five days before going to No. 4 Baylor for a matchup of the Big 12's top teams.
''We started school this week, so I thought that it was a little bit of a blessing that we had a few days before we came down here and were able to give them a day off to regroup a little bit. I thought we worked on some things in practice that they exposed and we are going to have to continue to get better,'' Aston said. ''It's a great week and we have a lot of challenges ahead of us.''
Lashann Higgs scored 16 points for Texas, which had lost two of its last three.
Brilelle Blaire and Erin Degrate led Texas Tech with seven points apiece. After hitting seven of their first 14 shots, the Red Raiders finished at a season-low 27 percent (15 of 55) from the field, including 2 of 14 from 3-point range.
''I'm really not focused on the win or the loss,'' Texas Tech interim coach Shimmy Gray-Miller said. ''My message to the team today in the locker room was the exact same message I said against Kansas. Where we are today is not where we're gonna be two weeks from now. So, take great comfort in that, take great delight in that, be encouraged by that, have confidence in that.''
BIG PICTURE
Texas: The 51-point margin of victory broke the Longhorns' previous Big 12 record, which was 43 in an 83-40 win over Colorado on Feb. 23, 2005.
Texas Tech: Things certainly don't get any easier for the Red Raiders. Their next two games are on the road against ranked teams, at No. 17 West Virginia and No. 24 Oklahoma State. Their next home game is Feb. 3 against Baylor.
UP NEXT
Texas: At No. 4 Baylor (17-1, 7-0) on Thursday.
Texas Tech: At No. 17 West Virginia on Wednesday.
