LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Kansas' best game of the season turned out to be Rick Barnes' worst Big 12 loss ever.
With a smothering defense and 27 points from Wayne Simien, No. 6 Kansas romped past No. 16th Texas 90-65 Saturday night, handing Barnes his most lopsided setback in a conference game in seven years as the Longhorns' head coach.
"Those are the best two halves we've put together all year, by far," said Aaron Miles, Kansas senior point guard.
"Offensively, we shared the ball and executed," said Miles, the Big 12's career assists leader. "Defensively, we played great team defense. We made them take tough shots. That's the key."
The 16th-ranked Longhorns (15-5, 4-3), down to eight scholarships players because of injuries and academic problems, were never in it, falling to 0-5 in Allen Fieldhouse since the Big 12 was formed in 1996. They committed a season-high 20 turnovers.
"They were good," Barnes said. "We really didn't give ourselves a chance. In the first half they had 14 points off our turnovers."
Keith Langford had 17 points and Miles had 10 points and eight assists for the Jayhawks (16-1, 6-0), who took over the Big 12 lead with the surprisingly one-sided romp over a team that beat them twice last season.
Keyed by Jeff Hawkins' 3-pointer at the buzzer, the Jayhawks closed the first half on a 14-4 run, taking a 43-28 lead.
Determined to keep the momentum, they came out firing in the second half and quickly built the lead to 21 points.
"That's what we were thinking," Miles said. "There have been games this year where we'd be up by 15 points and then we'd let a team back in. We can't be like that. Good teams like Texas can get back in the game, so you have to put your foot on their throat and not let them back."
Simien started the second half by stealing a pass and then Miles hit a 3-pointer. Christian Moody blocked a shot and fed Langford for another basket.
"It was a collective effort. It was probably our most complete game of the season," Simien said.
A moment later, J.R. Giddens hit a 3-pointer that put the Jayhawks on top 51-30. Texas never came closer than 16 in the second half of its worst conference loss in Barnes' seven seasons. The previous worst was an 83-59 setback at Oklahoma on Jan. 31, 2000.
"They were great tonight," said Daniel Gibson, Texas' sensational freshman point guard. "They came out aggressive."
Gibson, who went 6-for-6 from behind the arc against Texas Tech on Tuesday night and had averaged almost 22 points in his last three games, had only four points in the first half. But he wound up with 19, and the respect of the Jayhawks.
"He's going to be a great guard in this conference," Miles said. "When they were down, he kind of took it upon himself to say, `You know what? OK, I'm going to try to do something.' And he made shots. He made plays in the second half. I like that in a young player."
Jason Klotz and Kenton Paulino each had 12 for the Longhorns, who shot only 37 percent to Kansas' 50 percent.
"That (Kansas) is probably the best team in the Big 12," said Klotz. "They played great."
Texas, after hitting 14-of-21 from beyond the arc in its previous game, made only 4-of-23.
"Our offense early got us in trouble," said Barnes. "It wasn't our defense."
Nearly unstoppable on his mid-range jumper, Simien had 14 points in the first half, including one stretch when he scored six points in a row. The Jayhawks went up 34-24 when Hawkins hit a layup and converted a foul shot.
"One thing we did have tonight for the entire game was effort," said Barnes. "A lot of teams would roll over, but our guys didn't. They (Kansas) got it going and played really well."
