Texas routs rival Texas A&M Wednesday night

AUSTIN, Texas -- Jordan Hamilton scored 27 points and Texas (No. 11 ESPN/USA Today, No. 10 AP) beat Texas A&M (No. 10 ESPN/USA Today, No. 11 AP) 81-60 on Wednesday night, snapping the Aggies' 13-game winning streak.

Freshman Tristan Thompson added 18 points for the Longhorns (15-3, 3-0 Big 12) before limping off with a leg cramp with 4 minutes left in the first meeting of the rivals this season.

Khris Middleton scored 16 points for Texas A&M (16-2, 3-1), which hasn't won in Austin since 2002 and never led in this one.

The Aggies had not lost since a 67-65 loss to Boston College on Nov. 25.

Texas shot 58 percent from the field and the worst free throw shooting team in the Big 12 was 19 of 22 from the line.

The matchup produced the rowdiest crowd of the season so far at Texas in what most expected would be a scrappy, hard-fought game instead of a rout.

The Aggies were hit with eight fouls in a 2-minute span of the first half, leaving coach Mark Turgeon in a foot-stomping rage. Turgeon was hit with a technical and Texas made its first eight free throws for a 20-5 lead.

Thompson scored eight of Texas' first 12 points, all of them coming on dunks and shots from just a couple of feet from the basket.

When the whistles against the Aggies finally stopped -- or at least slowed down -- Texas A&M used a 14-4 run to get within 24-19. But Texas closed the half with a 15-4 run, highlighted by Thompson's alley-oop dunk from J'Covan Brown and Hamilton's 3-pointer, for a 39-27 lead.

Middleton was Texas A&M's only real scoring option of the half and he had 12 points.

The Longhorns quickly pushed their lead to 17 points in the opening minutes of the second half. Hamilton's turnaround 3-pointer from the top of the arc opened the half and Thompson powered over David Loubeau for a tough layup that made it 48-31.

Nothing seemed to be going right for the Aggies, who struggled to make any kind of a run to close the gap. Ray Turner missed an easy dunk off an inbounds pass that might have sparked a rally but instead bounced all the way back out to the free throw line.

Thompson and Hamilton kept making plays on both ends of the court. Thompson's soft jumpers, tough layups and four blocks kept Texas comfortably ahead before Hamilton delivered the knockout punch with a baseline jumper and another turn-around 3-pointer that put the Longhorns up 58-35.

By the time the Aggies showed some life offensively, the game was out of reach. Texas A&M made three 3-pointers in four possessions but Hamilton and Johnson made five straight shots to squelch any chance of a rally.