Austin, Texas ? Texas forward Damion James was responsible Monday night for the most remarkable statistic yet produced during this Kansas University basketball season.

In the second half of the Longhorns’ 72-69 victory against KU, James had 13 rebounds and Kansas had 12.

James had 12 of his 14 points and all of his rebounds in the second half. He played just three minutes in the first half, sitting the rest of it because he had two quick fouls called on him.

“Sending my team out for a fight without me was hard on me,” James said. “If there’s going to be a fight, I want to be involved in it. I was watching Kansas pounding us on the boards in the first half, and that’s my main job, rebounding.”

James played the entire second half, and Texas won the battle of the boards, 23-12, after losing it, 23-13 in the first half.

Asked what he thought Texas showed the world Monday night, James said, “We showed we can compete with any team in the country on any given night.”

Didn’t the Longhorns (20-4, 7-2) already show that by defeating Tennessee and UCLA in nonconference play?

“Yes, but we got beat against Wisconsin, and people were kind of down on us after that,” James said. “We came out tonight and proved them wrong.”

Fellow sophomore Justin Mason, a 6-foot-1 guard, also played a role in the second half rebounding advantage for the Longhorns.

“I was a little surprised because they are a good team, and they usually box out well,” said Mason, who had six of his eight rebounds in the second half. “You have to give credit to D.J. (Augustin) and A.J. (Abrams) for driving in there and having those big men come over to open up opportunities for offensive rebounds.”

Kansas also failed to exploit Brandon Rush’s seven-inch height advantage on A.J. Abrams. The 5-11 Abrams was asked if he was surprised Rush didn’t try to post him up more often than he did.

“I was kind of surprised, but I don’t think that really plays into his game,” Abrams said. “He’s more of a perimeter-oriented player. As the game went on, he did try to post me a little, but I think I did OK.”