The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
4-2
UAB
2-4
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 31 | 28 | 59 |
| UAB | 23 | 26 | 49 |
Women's Basketball defeats UAB, 59-49, giving Goestenkors her 400th career win
11.25.2007 | Women's Basketball
HONOLULU -- Led by a game-high 21 points from sophomore Brittainey Raven, the No. 21 Texas women's basketball team registered a 59-49 victory over UAB Sunday night in the fifth-place game of the Wahine Classic, giving Longhorns head coach Gail Goestenkors her 400th career victory in the process. Goestenkors became the fourth fastest coach in Division I women's basketball history to notch 400 wins, as she reached the milestone in 501 games.
Texas, which received 11 points from redshirt sophomore Carla Cortijo and a nine-point, game-high and season-high 11 rebounds from junior Ashley Lindsey, is now 4-2 overall. UAB was held to 25.7 percent shooting by a Longhorn defense which forced 16 turnovers. The Blazers fall to 2-4.
Texas led by as many as 11 points (34-23) early in the second half before the Blazers cut the Longhorns lead to two points, 40-38, on a Christon Ingram layup and free throw with nine minutes to go. At that point, Raven took over, scoring seven straight points on two jumpers and a 3-pointer from the wing, to push UT's lead to nine, 47-38, with 4:41 left.
A layup by UAB's Amanda Scott cut the lead to nine (47-40) 18 seconds later before Lindsey scored underneath and Earnesia Williams added two free throws to push the lead back to 11, 51-40.
UAB fought back, cutting the lead to five, 51-46 on a jumper by Britney Jones with 1:02 to go before Cortijo sank four straight free throws in one-and-one situations to give UT the 55-46 edge with 44 seconds left to seal the win.
The Longhorns survived a tough shooting night from the floor (hitting 32 percent of their shots) by relying on solid free throw shooting and rebounding. The Longhorns were 18 for 21 from the foul line, including a 12-for-13 effort in the final half. Texas also held a 51-45 edge on the boards. UAB went nine-for-15 from the free throw line.
Texas went 2-1 in the tourney, losing its first game to Virginia (86-83) which sent UT into the consolation bracket. Texas then rebounded with two wins to close out the eight-team, three-day tourney, defeating Kentucky 72-60 Saturday before the win over UAB.
Goestenkors, in her 16th year of collegiate head coaching overall and her first at Texas, now stands 400-101 in her illustrious career. Goestenkors' winning percentage of 79.8 percent also ranks third among all active Division I coaches.
The coach who earned victory No. 400 the fastest was former Louisiana Tech mentor Leon Barmore (465 games), followed by current Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer (490 games, while Iowa head coach), Connecticut's Geno Auriemma (495) and now Goestenkors.
Both former Texas head coach Jody Conradt and Tennessee's Pat Summitt reached their respective 400th wins in 510 games, tied for seventh fastest.
Texas held a seven-point lead at the break, 31-23, as UT had balanced scoring with three players scoring seven points apiece. Lindsey added five points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the opening half, which set her season game high after just one half.
The first half saw both teams cold from the floor, with Texas shooting 31.4 percent and UAB hitting just 20 percent of its shots. Texas had six steals off 12 UAB turnovers in the half. After a 10-10 tie, Texas went on a 10-2 run to lead 20-12 with 7:48 to go on an Erneisha Bailey 3-pointer.
UAB was led by 17 points from forward Diamond Rogers, the Blazers' leading scorer to date. Ingram added 11 points. UAB's second and third leading scorers on the year - Crystal McFadden (17.0 ppg) and Jones (14.0 ppg) - were held to a combined 6-for-31 from the field. McFadden finished with eight points and Jones with five.
Texas turned the ball over 19 times to UAB's 16. Both teams had six steals.
Texas will fly back to the mainland on a Sunday evening overnight flight, and will return to action on Thursday, Nov. 29 when the Longhorns host UT-Arlington at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. That game will tip at 7 p.m. and will be televised on FOX Sports Southwest TV. The game also will be broadcast on the radio in Central Texas on KVET Radio, 98.1 FM, a change from the usual KVET 1300 AM signal where fans can find Longhorns women's basketball broadcast.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Sophomore guard Brittainey Raven has now been in double-figure scoring all six games this season; last year, she played in all 32 games and reached double-digit scoring 10 times in total ... Raven has been UT's leading scorer in four of the six games to date.
- Coaches who have reached 400 wins the fastest in Division I women's basketball play are: 1. Leon Barmore (Louisiana Tech, 465 games); 2. current Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer (490 games, got 400th while Iowa head coach); 3. Connecticut mentor Geno Auriemma (495 games); 4. Gail Goestenkors (501).
- Lindsey (11 rebounds) pulled down 10 rebounds in the first half, a total which was her season high after just 20 minutes ... Lindsey's career high in rebounds is 14, set against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi during her freshman year.
- This was Texas' fourth trip to the Wahine Classic ... Texas came to Honolulu previously in 1988, 1999 and 2003 ... In 12 Wahine Classic games, the Horns are now 10-2, winning the tourney by going 3-0 in 1988 and 2003 and placing second to host Hawaii in 1999.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS HEAD COACH Gail Goestenkors
General statement: That was not pretty at all today. We really had to gut this one out. We showed that it was our third game in three days, and came out flat and tired. Give UAB all the credit for doing such a great job with their zone (defense). They made us play to their tempo, which is a slow-down half-court style, and we got out of rhythm and couldn't really get our offense going, since we want to run and push the ball.
I am proud of the way we came through, however. I am particularly proud of how focused we were at the foul line, and am really pleased that we made 18 of 21 free throws, and all but one of our 13 in the second half. When we needed big plays offensively this tournament, we turned to Britt (Brittainey Raven) in the first two games, and then again today. She was solid and her scoring spurt late in the game took the momentum away from UAB and gave us the win.
On reaching the 400-victory milestone and doing it as the fourth-fastest coach ever in Division I history, quicker than Tennessee's Pat Summitt and former UT coach Jody Conradt, who rank one-two in all-time Division I men's and women's victories: I can honestly tell you that this (400th win) was the furthest thing from my mind today. I was just hoping we could keep grinding it out out there. To think about 400 wins (laughing), well, it really doesn't seem like I've had that many (victories). I think about people like Pat (Summitt) and Jody (Conradt), with Jody having 900 wins and Pat many more than that. Really, I'm just the new kid on the block when it comes to these kind of things.
On what the Longhorns would take away from the Wahine Classic: First, the opportunity to travel as a team and bond - that's very important for this program with all the new coaches in place. Second, we saw how we need to learn to better pace ourselves on offense, when to go forward and fast, and when to pull back.
I liked that we showed some great character in different ways in the three games. Against Virginia, a good team, we showed that we could come back from 11 down and make it a game. Then, we showed we could bounce back after that loss one day later against Kentucky, and play one of our best games of the year. Then today, we showed the ability to grind it out when we are fatigued and hit important free throws.
SOPHOMORE GUARD Brittainey Raven
On UT's play and on breaking the game open with seven consecutive points down the stretch: In the last 10 minutes, you could see UAB getting more and more confident out there. At a timeout, the coaches stressed that we needed some quick buckets, and I was just in the right place at the right time. We did a really good job of playing inside-out. Ashley (Lindsey) was fantastic at reading the double team and finding the open player, which just happened to be me. We did a nice job of reversing the ball and finding the open person in the last 10 minutes.
