By Steve Habel/Senior Editor
AUSTIN – Texas used big runs at the end of the first half and in the middle of the second and not-in-our-house defense via 14 blocked shots to soar past Kansas State 62-49 in its regular-season finale Saturday before 12,053 at the Erwin Center.
The Longhorns (19-12, 8-10 in Big 12 play), in dire need of a final victory and likely at least one win in next week’s Big 12 tournament to earn a spot in the NCAAs, roused from a ragged start and pushed past dogged Kansas State with a 14-6 run to end the first half with a 34-26 lead.
With the win the Longhorns [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]pushed past Kansas State into seventh place in the league standings and will face Texas Tech in the first round of the conference tournament Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.
Demarcus Holland led the Longhorns with 12 points while Connor Lammert added 11 and Jonathan Holmes and Isaiah Taylor hit for 10 apiece. Cameron Ridley pulled down a team-high seven rebounds for Texas, which outboarded K-State 36-31.
“The past four games we’ve rebounded the ball better and played better defense,” Texas coach Rick Barnes said. “That’s important. We just need to do what you do well. That’s all we ever ask of these guys. If we do that we should be a confident team.”
Texas had 10 of its 14 blocked shots in the first 20 minutes, tying a team record, and shot 48 percent in the half.
But the Longhorns went cold in the early part of the second half (they didn’t hit a shot from the field for the first eight minutes) and allowed K-State to get back to within 41-40 with 10:13 to play.
Connor Lammert got Texas back on track with a layup and a tip-in before Jonathan Holmes, playing his final game in the Erwin Center rained back-to-back 3-pointers from the left baseline corner to set the crowd on fire.
“When those shots go in, that’s exciting, especially in the time of the game that he hit them,” Holland said of Holmes. “We never gave up on Jon. We knew he was going to keep shooting and eventually make some of those.”
Holmes then missed his next 3-pointer but ran the floor to block the shot of K-State’s Nigel Johnson and start a fast break opportunity that Kendal Yancy turned into a alley-oop pass to Cameron Ridley for a monster one-handed throwdown that all but took the heart out of the Wildcats.
“That was dunk started by the block from Holmes and it was an unselfish play by Yancy,” Ridley said. “I was excited and hyped up by the crowd. Our confidence is very high right now.”
Thirty seconds later, Yancy fed Holland for a baseline dunk to push the Horns’ lead to 56-45.
“At the end, the guards have to come through for you,” Barnes said. “We knew this was going to be a possession game. We had to protect the ball, and overall the past two games we’ve taken care of the ball.”
Barnes refused to get into the discussion about whether Texas should be in the NCAA tournament.
“The focus (against K-State) was a good as it’s been since the West Virginia game as far as getting done what we have to do,” Barnes said. “You have to win games. We know every game is important. We wanted to be more aggressive and we haven’t focused on anything but the game in front of us.
“We are certainly good enough to be in the NCAAs but you play your way in,” he added. “If we’ve done enough, we done enough. If we didn’t, then we didn’t. We are just going to come back on Monday and get back to work. Right now it’s just a matter of doing it.”
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