The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
6-2
Sam Houston State
1-7
No. 24 Women's Basketball tops Sam Houston State, 91-41, for fourth straight win
12.02.2007 | Women's Basketball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Led by a game-highs of 19 points and seven assists from sophomore guard Brittainey Raven, No. 24 Texas cruised to a 91-41 win over Sam Houston State Sunday afternoon in women's basketball action at the Frank Erwin Center.
Texas improves to 6-2 while extending its win streak to four games.
The Longhorns jumped out to a 23-2 lead nine minutes into the game. Texas shot a season-high 54.8 percent from the floor, making 37 of 66 field goal attempts. The Longhorns also had a season-high 17 steals.
Texas limited Sam Houston State (1-7) to 23.4 percent shooting. Sam Houston turned the ball over 23 times, with UT out-scoring the Bearkats in points off turnovers by a commanding 33-10 margin.
For Raven (Fort Worth, Texas/Crowley HS), those seven assists also were a career-high. She added five rebounds and three steals while scoring the majority of her points on fastbreak layups, as UT scored 28 of its 91 points on the break. Sam Houston had no fast-break points.
Texas also utilized its height advantage, as the Bearkats, whose tallest player was 6-0, were out-rebounded by the Longhorns, 51-29. UT held a 52-18 advantage in the scoring in the paint.
Joining Raven in double-figure scoring were redshirt sophomore forward Earnesia Williams and junior post Ashley Lindsey, each with 12 points. Lindsey also had three blocks.
After Sam Houston scored the game's first basket on a LaToya Bennett jumper 29 seconds into the game, the Longhorns ran off 23 unanswered points, capped by a Kathleen Nash three-pointer for the 23-2 lead with 11:11 remaining. In taking the 23-2 lead to start the contest, Texas connected on 10 of its first 13 shots in the first nine minutes of play, while Sam Houston made just one of its first 14 field goal attempts and had four turnovers.
Sam Houston stopped the 23-0 UT run when forward Whitney Smith hit a short jumper, but the Longhorns then went on a 16-0 run over the next 5:36, rolling to a 39-4 advantage on an Erneisha Bailey layup with 5:20 to go.
The Longhorns led at the half, 39-14, as Lindsey scored 10 points in 12 minutes of first-half play to lead the UT charge.
Texas shot 55 percent in the first half, making 17 of 31 shots, while Sam Houston hit 20 percent of its field goals, connecting on six of 30 shots. Texas out-rebounded the Bearkats by a 27-11 margin in the first 20 minutes.
For the game, Texas made 37 of 66 field goal attempts for its' season-best shooting effort of 56.1 percent. Sam Houston finished the game shooting 23.4 percent, making 15 of 64 field goals attempted.
The Bearkats had two players in double figure scoring, as Smith and center Lydia Gonzales each finished with 12 points. Gonzales also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.
Texas has a six-day layoff before returning to action on Saturday, Dec. 8, traveling to Corpus Christi, Texas to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (1-6). That game will be played at the AmericanBank Center in Corpus Christ, with a tip at 1:30 p.m. (Central).
For tickets to Saturday's game, call the ABC box office at 361-826-4744. The box office also will be open two hours before next Saturday's 1:30 p.m. start.
POSTGAME NOTES
- For the third time this year, the Longhorns surpassed 90 points ... the 91 points against Sam Houston is the third highest point total of the season, as UT netted 94 against Lamar (Nov. 15) and 92 against Missouri State (Nov. 11) ... the last time Texas scored 90 or more points three times in a season was in 2003-04 when UT accomplished that five times
- Co-captain and sophomore guard Brittainey Raven's seven assists were a career-high, surpassing her former career best of five assists which she reached twice as a freshman
- Raven has now been in double-figure scoring all eight games, a team best ... last year, the 6-0 shooting guard played in all 32 games with 25 starts and logged 10 games with 10 or more points
- Texas posted single season highs in field goal percentage (.561) and steals (17) and tied the season single-game bests for rebounds (51) ... UT's 22 assists were second-highest total of the season
- Co-captain Earnesia Williams, a redshirt sophomore forward, has been in double-figure scoring five times in the eight games, including four times in the last five games ... in UT's last two games (vs. UT Arlington and Sam Houston), Williams logged 23 points and 14 rebounds
- Texas has out-rebounded all eight of its opponents this year, holding a +7.9 rebounds per game margin over the opposition ... UT is pulling down 44.6 rpg to the opponents' 36.8 rpg ... last year, led by then-senior Tiffany Jackson's 9.0 rpg and then-junior guard Erneisha Bailey's 5.3 rpg, Texas out-rebounded 16 of its 32 opponents, going 13-3 in those games .... Texas was 5-10 when out-rebounded last season
- Today's game marked the third of four games that the Longhorns will play this season against Southland Conference opponents - and the second of three straight against SLC foes ... Thursday, Texas defeated UT Arlington (76-60) and will travel to Corpus Christi to face TAMU-Corpus Christi at the American Bank Center on Saturday, Dec. 8 (1:30 p.m.) in its next game ... On Nov. 15, UT beat SLC member Lamar, 94-35 ... In all-time games against the Southland Conference, Texas stands 66-14, for a winning percentage of 82.5 percent.
TEXAS POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gail Goestenkors
Opening statement: I was proud of the way we got out of the gates and I thought we were focused and ready to play. We had good energy on both ends of the court. I thought we lost our focus going into the end of the first half, but at the start of the second half, we picked it up again. Overall, I thought it was a good team effort. We wanted to focus on our man-to-man defense and get better in that area, and I think we did a good job of that tonight. We need to work on our zone defense now a little bit, because we had several breakdowns in our zone. This was a game for us to see what we are doing well and what we need to work on.
On having the team focus on having patience on the offensive side of the ball: It was kind of a difficult game for that because we got so many steals and (scores in) transitions. We are still trying to find a balance between when to run and when to set up. In the second half, I thought we did a better job of setting up and running through our offense. I thought we made some good strides in the second half.
On the rebounding advantage: Sam Houston has been out-rebounded by 14 a game, so we knew we would have the size advantage. We definitely needed to focus on the boards tonight.
On sophomore guard Brittainey Raven's game and the improvement she is making: I think she has always been a great transition guard and I think Brittainey gets out (on the break) better than anyone. Our team finds players well on transition - especially Carla [Cortijo]. Britt's so fast, we know that she will catch up to the ball and finish the play. What she is beginning to understand is that when we don't have a transition play, how to pull back and execute our offense. I thought today, Brittainey had one of her best games on helping us run through our sets. She had seven assists, a career high, so that tells you how well she did.
SOPHOMORE GUARD Brittainey Raven
On her game tonight (19 points, 5 rebounds, career-high 7 assists): Right away, we started off with a few fast break points and Carla (Cortijo) found me several times running down the court. After that, my teammates kept finding me on the fast break. We had a really good inside-out game going.
On becoming more of an offensive leader this year: This year, I knew I would have to step up in scoring. I just try to go out there and be aggressive on both ends of the court. I am really just trying to work on slowing it down and getting it under control and trying to execute with more discipline. I know I played out of control sometimes last year, and I'm working, like Coach G. said, of keeping my composure and knowing when to run and when to set it up.
On recording a career-high in assists: I was really excited when I saw that! In our guard meeting this morning, we talked about me focusing more on getting some assists, working the ball around, and getting my teammates the ball more.
JUNIOR FORWARD Earnesia Williams
On her shooting performance tonight: I just tried to take the open shot and focus on finishing the shot. We had a lot of assists, 22 on 37 field goals, so my teammates did a good job of moving the ball around.
On the biggest difference in the Longhorn team from last year to this year: The biggest difference is the intensity in the program, and it's been more demanding this year. Coach G (Goestenkors) expects more out of us this year than we've probably ever given, and she has been pushing us harder and harder. She told us when she came here that it was to win championships. She did that at Duke, and we know that it's a good thing that she is doing all this intense pushing and being demanding. Although there are times we might not like it, getting pushed makes us better and better.
SAM HOUSTON STATE POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH BRENDA WELCH-NICHOLLS
Opening statement: I'm very proud of my team. We came out and worked hard. We definitely have a lot of things we have to go back and work on. Our players never gave up and hustled all through the game. We are young and the thing we learning very quickly is that we are still learning on how to play with each other. We have a lot of returnees, but we also have a lot of new kids. This is our second year together as a coaching staff, we so are all trying to learn together. As we keep battling through these games, they will definitely help us with the conference play.
On the differences between Texas Tech and Texas after playing both Big 12 teams back-to-back: I think we played Texas Tech a little harder and we were on offensively against them. Tonight, we did not shoot the ball well. As for Texas, they definitely have the bigger posts. I think that will be a good game between the two of you. For us against Texas Tech, I think we played a lot better game than we played tonight.
On Texas's improvement from last year: I think any team that can run and improve in that area can battle anybody - and that's what Texas is doing. That is what we are trying to do. We are trying to teach our kids how to run. We are doing a lot more running and a lot more pressing and I think we are starting to do a better job. We have seven new players and seven old players, and we are definitely battling or own issues right now with three players out with ACL injuries, including my junior college point guard transfer, so hopefully by conference play, we will have our issues handled. I definitely want to wish all the Texas players best of luck.
