HOUSTON — At the end there was only disappointment.

Texas players sat quietly in the locker room as reporters interviewed them in hushed tones as if in a funeral parlor. The Longhorns’ season-ending 85-67 loss to Memphis cut short a campaign that had already seen a record number of wins and a pair of 20-point tournament victories.

“You can’t regret anything,” Damion James said, eyes set firmly on the floor. “Memphis came out and played a great game. You can’t take anything from it. You can’t regret anything.”

Texas appeared outmatched from the onset, and even the Longhorns’ best performances were startlingly pedestrian.

A.J. Abrams led the team with a deceptively high 17 points - 12 of which came in the last three minutes when the game was already out of reach - and D.J. Augustin’s 16 points came off 4-of-18 shooting.

While the Tigers’ defense forced contested shots and played a big role in Texas’ 36.2 shooting percentage, the eight turnovers it wrangled from the Longhorns kept Memphis in control of the game.

“I don’t think we’ve seen as good a defense all year as we did that we saw today,” Texas coach Rick Barnes said. “I told our team, probably the only thing we will really look back and be disappointed about is early, we got out of character in terms of turnovers and shot selection. … But even with that said, we got back in it and then let it slip again because of some turnovers.”

Texas trailed by 11 points at the half but cut the margin to five points when James hit a jumper that made the score 39-34. That’s as close as the Longhorns got, though; Memphis responded with an 18-4 run.

Texas suffered its first blow early when Connor Atchley and James each picked up a pair of quick fouls.

“Connor and Damion getting into early foul trouble took us away from what we wanted to do,” Barnes said.

The Longhorns were prepared to play a fast-paced game or use ball reversals and movement, but they couldn’t accomplish that effectively after subbing out for Atchley and James, Barnes said.

Except for Texas’ halftime resurgence, the Longhorns never seemed in the game and faced a double-digit deficit for most of it. The death bell sounded for Texas’ season when Antonio Anderson punctuated a fast break with an electrifying dunk that made the score 67-48 with 4:46 remaining.

“There’s no doubt they were a better team today,” Barnes said. “There’s no question about that.”

Unfortunately for the Longhorns, a contest that called for Texas’ best was marked by mediocrity.

And Augustin struggled as much as anyone.

The point guard handed out only three assists and turned the ball over four times. He shot 22.2 percent from the floor.

Barnes didn’t complain, though.

“He means so much to us, and we wouldn’t even be close to where we are today without D.J.,” he said. “He knows he can play better than he played today. He’ll play it over many, many times here. But from what I know about him, he will learn from it and get better.”

Whether or not Barnes will get to benefit from the improvement remains to be seen. Augustin said after the game that he hasn’t made a decision about jumping up to the NBA.

“I’m not even thinking about that,” he said.

On his way out of the locker room, the sophomore dished out his last assist of the season, a tossed purple Powerade that landed safely in Justin Mason’s waiting hands.

Texas’ year is over, and Augustin’s career as a Longhorn might be too.