The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
10-2
Depaul
10-1
Women's Basketball upsets No. 12 DePaul, 91-81
12.29.2007 | Women's Basketball
The win moves Texas to 10-2 on the year and extends UT's winning streak to eight games. Texas hands DePaul its first defeat of the year, as the Blue Demons (10-1) had entered the game as one of four unbeaten Division I teams in the country.
Texas will play in Maggie Dixon Surf 'N Slam Classic championship game on Sunday evening (10 p.m. Central) against host San Diego (8-4) at the USD's Jenny Craig Pavilion. San Diego stopped Appalachian State, 79-60, in Friday's first round.
Texas is the defending Surf `N Slam Classic champion, having defeated host San Diego last Dec. 30 by a 73-45 margin for the championship.
Joining Cortijo and Lindsey in double-figure scoring were freshman guard Kat Nash and sophomore guard Brittainey Raven, each with 15 points, senior guard Erneisha Bailey (12 points) and 10 points from redshirt sophomore Earnesia Williams.
The game was the second in a row for the Longhorns against a Top 25 team, and the third game overall against a ranked opponent to date. UT is now 2-1 against the Top 25.
Up by 11 at intermission (41-30), the Longhorns pushed its lead to 22, 73-51 on an Aubry Cook jumper with 9:02 to go. DePaul countered, however, with a big run, out-scoring the Longhorns 18-5 over the next 5:19 to cut UT's advantage to nine, 78-69, when Allie Quigley nailed her fourth 3-pointer of the game with 3:43 remaining. A Nash free throw gave UT a double-digit lead again, 79-69, and on DePaul's next possession, Nash stole the ball and UT finished the play with a Lindsey layup for an 81-69 edge with 2:45 to go.
DePaul cut the lead to nine, 85-76, on a Deidre Naughton 3-pointer before Texas sealed the game by going eight-for-eight from the foul line in the final 1:49.
There were eight lead changes and three ties in the first 20 minutes of play, yet UT posted a 41-30 edge at intermission behind a big closing run and 52 percent shooting. UT also limited DePaul to 34.4 percent shooting.
The Longhorns closed the first half with a 15-3 run over the last 4:14, with Williams netting seven of those points on a three-pointer, two free throws and a short jumper. Prior to that run, the Longhorns trailed 27-26 following a backdoor layup by DePaul's Erin Carney.
Williams started the 15-3 run with a straightaway jumper from the top of the key, her first basket after she had missed her first six shots. Bailey then followed with a jumper and Lindsey had a layup as UT scored six unanswered points for a 32-27 edge. After a three-pointer by DePaul's Naughton cut the Longhorn lead to two (32-30), Texas closed out the half with nine points. Williams scored the next five points in the game with a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer from the wing to push the lead to seven, 37-30, with 1:04 to go before two Cortijo free throws and a Lindsey layup gave UT its 11-point lead at the break.
In the final 4:14, the Blue Demons connected on one of five shots, had two turnovers, and were 0-3 from the free throw line.
In the first half, Lindsey led the way with 12 points and five rebounds, while senior guard Erneisha Bailey added nine points and four rebounds.
Texas controlled the first-half boards as well, out-rebounding the Blue Demons by a 25-14 margin. DePaul, which entered the game ranked 13th nationally in 3-pointers made per game (7.6), were 5-12 in treys in the first half.
Quigley was the game's top scorer with 27 points. That included a five-for-11 effort from 3-point range. Naughton added 14 for the Blue Demons.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Texas, now 10-2, plays in Maggie Dixon Surf 'N Slam Classic championship game on Sunday evening (10 p.m. Central) against host San Diego (8-4) ... San Diego stopped Appalachian State, 79-60, in Friday's first round... Last year, Texas defeated San Diego, 73-45 on Dec. 30, 2006 for the 2006 Surf 'N Slam title
- Texas is now 3-0 in Surf 'N Slam play the last two years
- the nine assists by Cortijo was a season-best
- The Longhorns increase their win streak to eight games, tying the program's best win streak since earning eight straight victories in 2004-05 over a period stemming from Feb. 9-March 9 ... The last time Texas won nine games in a row was during the middle of the 2003-04 campaign
- Texas is now 2-1 against Top 25 opponents this season, and has posted back-to-back wins over Top 25 foes - both on the road ... On Dec. 20, No. 19 UT defeated then-No. 23 Arizona State (62-51) ... The loss was to No. 1 Tennessee (92-67, Nov. 18), also on the road (in Knoxville)
- DePaul was knocked from the unbeaten ranks... The Blue Demons had entered the game as one of only four unbeaten Division I clubs in the country, along with No. 1 UConn (9-0), No. 10 Georgia (10-0) and Arkansas (12-0)
- Texas is now 2-0 all-time against DePaul ... DePaul is the first Big 12 Conference team UT has faced since meeting Rutgers and Connecticut in 2005-06 regular season play (both losses)
- The Texas win keeps the DePaul women's basketball program from registering its 600th all-time victory
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS HEAD COACH Gail Goestenkors
General statement: DePaul is an exceptional team with a great coach and a great winning tradition. This was a statement game for us, a measuring stick, to see where we are.
I was very pleased with how we kept responded tonight after a slow start. We told the team before the game that we needed to come out and play great transition defense and also get out immediately on the shooters. Well, when DePaul went up by eight early (12-4) and had that hot start, I called a timeout and told the team, well, now do you understand how important transition "D" is tonight and how we have to close out on the 3-point shooters? I told them if they went out and did that, that we would be fine. We talked about tightening up on defense. That was our focus, and our team responded great from that point on.
What's most important right now is that we believe in one another. Some nights, you will shoot well, and we did tonight at times. I think the biggest thing was that we were making the extra pass and finding the open person tonight.
On what back-to-back victories over Top 25 opponents means to the team at this point in the year: I told our players that no one is really talking about Texas right now and that if we want to be a special team, that we need to start making a statement against the strongest teams out there. The ASU (win) game was a good step, since they were ranked at the time and we won at their place. Now, we just beat one of the four undefeated teams in the country. I think people will begin to take some more notice.
It's a process. These last two wins are a step in the right direction and hopefully will get us closer to being ready to face the Big 12 competition in a few weeks.
TEXAS SOPHOMORE GUARD Brittainey Raven
When asked about the up-tempo pace that Texas and DePaul played: Yes, we both like to play up-tempo. Both teams play with energy, and DePaul is a really good outside shooting team. In our scouting sessions and in practice, we talked about how much Depaul's guards like to push the ball and how much they love to shoot the "3" anytime they can. So, our defense started with (point guard) Carla Cortijo putting pressure on the ball, on their point guard, each time down the court. I think that our defense dictated everything for us tonight. Our defense created our offense in transition and at times it led to some easy buckets.
Then, it was a game of runs in the second half. Everyone contributed tonight and we had six players scoring in double-figures, which is what Coach G (Goestenkors) wants to see from us - balanced scoring and good transition defense. It was exciting that everyone who played did something important for us when they were out there. Like I said, Carla was great on defense and she had a lot of assists. Kat (Nash) came off the bench again and scored all over the court and got big rebounds. Ashley (Lindsey) was great in the post offensively and she really rebounded well.
When asked if going up against an undefeated and higher-ranked team made Texas play any differently: No, we try and play the same way every game - with energy, intensity and full-court pressure. We just played Arizona State, another ranked team, at their place and beat them before Christmas. We just try and do all the things every game that Coach G wants us to. We got a great effort from everyone tonight, just like we did against Arizona State, and that was the big difference in the game. If someone got in foul trouble, the sub came in and played great.
