No. 19 Women's Basketball posts 62-51 win over No. 22 Arizona State on the road

Thursday, December 20

Tempe, AZ

7:30 PM

University of Texas

9-2

Arizona State

6-5

Texas

Arizona State

No. 19 Women's Basketball posts 62-51 win over No. 22 Arizona State on the road

12.20.2007 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Behind 18 points from sophomore Brittainey Raven, 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds from freshman Kat Nash, and 10 points from sophomore redshirt point guard Carla Cortijo, No. 19 Texas women's basketball defeated No. 22 Arizona State, 62-51 on Thursday evening.

Texas moves to 9-2 with its seventh-straight win, while Arizona drops to 6-5. Texas is now 1-1 against the Top 25 this year.

The contest was tied only once, at 37-all with 12:10 to go before the Longhorns took over the contest behind Raven and Nash. Texas raced off to a 19-5 run over the next 6:53, paced by eight points and three rebounds from freshman guard Kat Nash and six points from Raven in the run, and led 56-42 with 5:17 to play.

The Longhorns shot 47 percent in the second half, making 27 of 65 shots. UT held ASU to 35 percent shooting for the game.

For the 10th time in 11 games, UT out-rebounded its opponents. Texas had 44 rebounds to ASU's 35. UT turned the ball over 15 times, while ASU made 18 turnovers.

Raven was 7-for-10 from the floor and added five rebounds and two steals to the winning effort. Nash, who was 0-7 from the floor in the first half, scored all of her points off the bench in the second half.

The first half saw Texas shoot 36.4 percent (12-33), while the Sun Devils managed to make just 26 percent of their field goals, going seven-for-27 from the floor. UT hit its first four shots, and four of its first six, including an Erneisha Bailey three-pointer, and led 11-0 with 3:31 gone in the contest.

ASU, 0-for-6 with two turnovers to start the game, came back to within seven, 13-6, on a Kirsten Thompson layup before UT pushed the lead back to nine, 15-6, on an Aubry Cook spinning layup with 10:20 to go. The Sun Devils then went on an 18-10 run over the next 10 minutes and took their first lead of game, 24-23, on guard Briann January's three-pointer from the wing with 2:12 left.

Texas would score only two points in the final 3:52, but those points gave UT the lead at intermission, 25-24, as freshman Rachel Rentschler scored on a putback with one second left in the period. That Rentschler bucket was the third shot in Texas' final possession of the half, as the Longhorns grabbed two offensive rebounds to keep the possession going before Rentschler hit her layup.

Both teams pulled down 22 rebounds in the half. ASU held a distinct advantage on the free throw line, making 10 trips to the foul line and connecting on eight. Texas went to the line just once and was 0-2 from the free throw lane. UT turned the ball over eight times, while ASU committed nine turnovers. ASU made two treys in the half, both by January, and went 2-for-8 from long range while Texas hit just one three-ball out of 10 attempts.

Texas will now break for a few days for the Christmas holiday before closing out the 2007 portion of its 2007-08 schedule in San Diego at the Maggie Dixon Surf 'N Slam Classic on Friday and Sunday, Dec. 28 and 30. The four-team tourney features Friday's first-round action between host San Diego and Appalachian State at 8 p.m. Central, followed by Texas and undefeated No. 15 DePaul (10-0) at 10 p.m. Central. The third-place and championship games are scheduled for Sunday at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., respectively.

Texas is the defending Surf 'N Slam Classic, defeating Oregon State (65-64) and San Diego (73-45) last December.

Following the San Diego tourney, Texas closes out its non-conference schedule with a home game against UT-Pan American (Jan. 3) before opening Big 12 Conference play at Nebraska (Jan. 9).