Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard talked about the Texas Longhorns coming in as one of the hottest teams in college basketball. That proved to be so today.

The hot shooting of guard Andrew Jones and his 22 points helped lift the Texas Longhorns over the No. 22 Texas Tech Red Raiders 68-58.

Jones was 8 for 14 from the field including 3-8 from deep, including some tough shots to beat the shot clock buzzer.

The Longhorn win is the first time Texas notches back-to-back wins over AP Top 25 opponents since the 2013-14 season (according to the Texas sports information director).

The looks on the court were not smiles of joy, obviously. Beard talked about the Longhorns being the more aggressive team in the second half, that in which helped Texas pull out of Lubbock with the win.

“In the second, offensively, they set the tone early,” Beard said. “They were in the bonus really early; I think four fouls in the first four minutes (of the game). Defensively, they were taking a lot away from us today. So, there’s no doubt about it, kind of the tale of two halves.”

Tech will now have to refocus their attention to finishing off their regular season to the league’s and nation’s top two teams: Baylor on the road and Kansas back in Lubbock next Saturday.

“We’re going to work on some stuff with our offense and our defense,” Beard simply said.

“It’s just staying the course. Want to congratulate Texas and (head coach Shaka Smart) tonight… Told you guys they’re one of the hottest teams in college basketball right now, and today that proved to be true again.”

The Longhorns had some key players out due to injury, specifically Jericho Sims, but different players stepped up and Beard said they got contributions from all different players.

“I think a couple guys today were hitting three-point shots and maybe hadn’t hit one all season,” Beard said, “but we expected this. This is what good teams do. We played an Oklahoma team whose back was against the wall. We got their best punch. Then today, we play a good Texas team that’s well-coached, backs are against the wall, we take their best punch, and they knocked us out with it.”

Davide Moretti, who finished with 11 points on 3 of 9 shooting, said consistency was the reason Texas was able to get away with the win.

“I think we played good some part of the game,” Moretti said, “but our biggest key and what we’re looking forward to most is more consistency, and I think we played good for the majority of the game. I think we played good (some period of the game), but it wasn’t enough.”

Moretti also talked about the effort the Red Raiders wanted to play with coming off the loss to Oklahoma.

“That’s what we tried to do,” Moretti said, “but, like I said, we weren’t consistent enough to get the job done.”

Texas head coach Shaka Smart said he was proud of his team that they did not flinch through all the adversity they have faced this season.

“We’ve had some injuries,” Smart said. “We’ve had some games that didn’t go our way, but last game against Tech at our place was just an unbelievable gut-punch, and they did a phenomenal job in the second half winning that game. But our guys have responded really, really well.”

Jones had the game-high 22 points, and it seemed every time there would be a shot-clock violation, he would drain the shot and silence the crowd. Smart said his story is phenomenal.

“First of all, for him even just to be out there and playing and competing after all the stuff he’s been through is so much fun,” Smart said, “but I think one thing that’s really helped him is he’s had a great appreciation for the fact that he is back and the opportunity that he does have, and he’s really grabbed a hold of it.”

Now riding a two-game losing streak as the No. 22 team in the country, the Red Raiders have to face the Baylor Bears and Kansas Jayhawks to wrap up their regular season, two of the top teams in the AP rankings and, nonetheless, the conference.

Tech will head to Baylor on Monday slated for an 8 p.m. tip followed by the season finale at home against the Kansas Jayhawks.