.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- Kansas coach Bill Self wanted his team to work the ball inside, and he made that clear at halftime.
"We got a lot of easy baskets because we didn't settle," Self said after the 10th-ranked Jayhawks beat Texas Tech 81-46 on Wednesday night. "First half I thought we settled a lot. In the second half I thought, you know we're so much better when we attack inside out, and we'll shoot it better when we attack inside out, and I thought we got the ball inside better in the second half either off the bounce or the pass."
Thomas Robinson had 19 points and 12 rebounds, and Tyshawn Taylor scored 15 for the Jayhawks (13-3), who improved to 3-0 in Big 12 play for the sixth consecutive season.
Meanwhile, the Red Raiders (7-8, 0-3) have dropped their first three conference games for the third straight year.
Kansas' man-to-man defense shut down the passing lanes and the Jayhawks hammered the ball inside in the second half. The overmatched Red Raiders couldn't keep pace.
Taylor said the turnaround in the first half surprised him.
"I think this is one of the first times that we really did that," he said of Kansas' strong finish to the opening half. "We started off kind of slow and we just changed that. We kept running our offense and we turned it up defensively a bit."
The Jayhawks made their first eight field goals inside after halftime and then Robinson sank a 3-pointer to put Kansas ahead 56-26 with 12:32 remaining.
Robinson is the only Big 12 player averaging a double-double.
Javarez Willis scored 12 to lead the Red Raiders. Their previous low this season was 49 points in a November loss to Indiana State.
Texas Tech coach Billy Gillispie dropped to 1-3 against his former boss. Gillispie, who beat Self only once when he coached at Texas A&M, was an assistant under Self from 1997-2000 at Tulsa and 2000-2002 at Illinois.
"They were able to do whatever they wanted to on both ends of the court, and we didn't give them any opposition at all," Gillispie said. "We played for about, I don't know, 10 or 12 minutes until it got to 20 (points), and after about 20 it seemed like we stayed there forever."
Red Raiders freshman Jordan Tolbert, ranked 10th nationally in field goal percentage (62.4 percent) and the team's leading scorer, had just four points.
The Jayhawks fell behind early but found their form as the first half wore on. Kansas finished with 38 points in the paint to 18 for Texas Tech.
"The last 7 or so minutes of the first half and really the first 12 minutes or so of the second half I thought we didn't guard well. I thought our big guys' ball-screen defense was better," Self said. "It was ugly and muddy, and then we kind of made some shots."
Tech led 16-15, but Kansas ended the half on a 20-4 run to lead 35-20 going into the break.
Texas Tech's Terran Petteway was ejected in the first half after he was called for a flagrant foul on Conner Teahan. Petteway elbowed Teahan and was escorted off the floor.
About 3 minutes earlier, Petteway got hit with a technical foul as Travis Releford tried to inbound the ball.
Texas Tech has the worst overall record in the Big 12 and hasn't won a game over a ranked opponent in 17 tries since December 2009, when the Red Raiders beat then-No. 12 Washington 99-92 in overtime under Pat Knight.
Unlike their previous two Big 12 games, the Red Raiders could not mount a comeback. Last week they cut a 13-point lead to two in the closing minutes of a 67-59 loss at Oklahoma State and pulled within four late in the second half against No. 4 Baylor, which won 73-60 on Saturday.
