The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
1-1
Sam Houston State
0-1
No. 18 Women's Basketball cruises past Sam Houston, 83-33
11.21.2005 | Women's Basketball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Eleven different players scored for No. 18 Texas, paced by career-highs and game-highs of 15 points and five blocks from reserve freshman post Ashley Lindsey, as the Longhorns posted an 83-33 women's basketball victory over Sam Houston State Monday night in front of 4,518 at the Frank Erwin Center. Joining Lindsey in double-figure scoring for UT was sophomore guard Erneisha Bailey (career-best 10 points).
Texas evens its record at 1-1, while Sam Houston was playing its season opener. Texas dominated in the paint, out-rebounding the Bearkats by a 62-28 margin while scoring 44 points in the paint to Sam Houston's 10.
The Bearkats, limited to 22 percent shooting from the floor, connected on just 12 of 54 field goals. Sam Houston turned the ball over 29 times while the Longhorns had 20 steals. Texas scored 35 points off turnovers, while SHSU had just two points off a UT turnover.
The Longhorns made 40 percent of their field goals (29-72). Texas had a strong performance on the free throw line, hitting 24 of 34 foul shots. SHU went to the foul line just five times, making three free throws.
Texas led at intermission, 43-10. Those 10 points by Sam Houston tied for the second-lowest first half points ever by a UT opponent.
Texas had jumped out to a lead of 25-3 with 8:05 left in the first half, as seven different Longhorns scored to start the game. Sam Houston went two-for-12 from the floor with 11 turnovers in the first 12 minutes.
Texas' 33-point lead at intermission came from dominance on the boards and in free throw shooting. Texas out-rebounded the Bearkats, 39-13 in the first half and went 13-for-19 from the free throw line. Sam Houston was limited to 17.4 percent shooting in the half, making four of 23 field goals, and went to the foul line only once, converting on its lone free throw.
In the second half, Texas opened with a 16-23 run to push its lead to 46 points, 59-13, on a foul shot by senior guard Daria Mieloszynska with 13:19 to go.
Other top Longhorn performances came from freshman post Aubry Cook who had nine points and a game-high and career-best nine rebounds, and Mieloszynska (nine points, career-high eight rebounds). Freshman guard Crystal Boyd also finished with nine points and had four assists and a game-best (and career-best) five steals.
Sam Houston State had no players in double figure scoring. Jamie Barr had seven points to lead the Bearkats.
Texas now hits the road for three straight games, beginning with the two-game Junkanoo Jam Tournament in Freeport, Grand Bahamas Island on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 25-26. In the four-team tourney, No. 19 Purdue and George Washington meet at noon (Central), and Texas faces South Carolina in Friday's first round (2:30 p.m. Central). Saturday's third-place game is set for noon, followed by the 2:30 p.m. Championship contest.
TEXAS POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Jody Conradt
Her general statement on the game: Our energy was very good tonight. Even though we played 'pop-a-shot' at first, we settled in after a while. We have gotten better every game. I told the team that tonight was about us focusing on what we needed to work on, and it was not about our opponent. Rebounding and tempo were two areas that we needed to do better in and things we talked about since Friday and the loss to New Mexico. Every young player is showing flashes of what they can do. Consistency will come as the season progresses. I got an opportunity to see how the team reacted up and down the roster tonight. I was proud of our rebounding effort. That was one of our points of emphasis the last few days. This is going to be important that everyone crash the boards. We need the ball to run.
You cannot play Duke, Tennessee and Rutgers and all the top teams every game. It's not how you season or prepare a team, especially with one as young as ours. They need to have success. With freshman, having positive early experiences are important.
On the play of freshman post Ashley Lindsey (team-high 15 points, six rebounds, team-high five blocks) and sophomore guard Erneisha Bailey (career-best 10 points): Ashley has tremendous potential, and we saw that tonight. She runs floor well, uses her arms and her length to her advantage. She is someone we will count on down the line. I was impressed with her free throw shooting tonight as well.
We are going to depend on Ernie (Erneisha Bailey) to be a defensive stopper for us right now. That is a very unselfish role and there is not a lot of glamour in that position. If there's a void we have right now, it's who can lock down and do a good job on the top scorer of our opponents. My candidate for that is Ernie Bailey, but she needs experience as well and she did a solid job tonight.
On the play of the six freshmen who saw action tonight (seventh player is sidelined with knee injury- Mariana Mergerson) and the rotations used: Right now, they are all really trying and listening. There is lots to absorb. We see progress every day - seeing that they are getting closer to being the team we want them to be. Right now, we are in a teaching mode. And, in terms of all the players, no one has taken themselves out of the rotation. All of them are showing flashes of good play. For the young players, consistency will come with experience and more opportunities to play. Tonight gave us the chance to do that. This game allowed us to play those who needed minutes and it allowed others to sit and rest. We've got to have people healthy and rested to travel and play on this long road trip that we are about to embark on. First, we go to the Bahamas tomorrow for the Thanksgiving tournament and then we come back early Sunday and get prepared to face Tennessee at Tennessee and Duke here in Austin next week. This is a good time to have some rest, since the next stretch is going to be long and grueling.
Sophomore guard Erneisha Bailey
Coach Conradt really stressed rebounding and pressure in practice the last two days after we lost to New Mexico. We really focused on that tonight. We needed a game like this to get the momentum going for this week and next.
Freshman post Ashley Lindsey
Coming in here to Texas, Coach told me we were going to work more on offense, because in high school, I really just focused on defense, rebounding and blocks. That's what I concentrated on in high school. Right now, I am concentrating the most in practice on my shooting. Getting this first win was really important for me, especially since I come from a high school program where my coach (Angie Jo Ogletree Hermesmeyer) won a lot here at Texas for Coach Conradt.
