LUBBOCK, Texas _ The Texas Tech Red Raiders went inside in the second half Sunday afternoon and that strategy paid off with a 79-57 victory over the University of Central Arkansas Bears in front of a crowd of 4,894 at United Spirit Arena.

The Red Raiders (7-3), UCA's second straight Big 12 opponent this season, got a season-high 13 points from 7-foot center Dejan Kravic in just nine minutes of action and scored 24 points in the paint after halftime. For the game, Tech outscored UCA 40-18 inside and also won the rebound battle 36-25, including 16 on the offensive end.

"It was just tough to get to the basket on Texas Tech,' said UCA head coach Clarence Finley. "They have so much size inside it was tough for us to score there. We had to try to attack from the perimeter and in the first half we made some shots.

"But they just kept coming off the bench with size. They were just too big inside.'

The Bears led early, using some hot perimeter shooting to open the game. UCA started with a 6-0 run, courtesy of a pair of three-pointers by senior guard DeShone McClure. The Bears were 6 of 12 from three-point range in the first half, with junior Aubrey Ball going 3 for 3 and McClure 2 for 5.

"Aubrey can shoot the ball, and he'd been shooting it well in practice,' said Finley. "We thought we'd get him in there and run him off some screens. He did a good job of curling off and making some shots. I thought the second half, they (Tech) did a lot better job defending it.'

The Red Raiders pulled away late in the first half, finishing the half with an 18-4 run after the Bears had grabbed a 22-21 lead with 6:38 in the half on a Ball three-pointer. Tech had a decided advantage in rebounding (19-12) and free throw shooting at the break. Tech was 7 of 12 at the line in the first half while UCA attempted no free throws.

  `The Bears opened the second half by scoring the first five points to get within 39-31 in the first two minutes, but Kravis scored six straight points to push the Red Raiders' lead back to 45-34. Tech led by as much as 26 points the rest of the way.

The Red Raiders forced UCA into 25 turnovers and scored 32 points off them.

"They are a well-coached team,' said Finley. "Coach (Tubby) Smith does a great job with his team. They do an outstanding job of getting in the passing lanes. They are long-armed and active on defense. And we threw some of those nonchalant passes that ended up being turnovers. But a lot of them were caused by the pressure defense Tubby teaches.'

  Junior guard Oliver Wells topped the Bears with 14 points, also leading the way from the perimeter, hitting 4 of 6 three-point shots. For the game, the top three-point shooting team in the Southland Conference connected on 9 of 19 (47.4 percent). McClure and freshman Jalen Jackson finished with 11 points each, while Ball added 9, going 3 for 5 from beyond the arc.

UCA continues its road trip with a 11:30 a.m. game against North Texas on Tuesday in Denton.