The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oklahoma State
Women's Basketball drops 64-52 Big 12 contest to Oklahoma State
02.21.2007 | Women's Basketball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Oklahoma State shot 60 percent in the second half, triggered by freshman point guard Andrea Riley (18 points) and senior forward Rashidat Sadiq (17 points), en route to posting a 64-52 Big 12 women's basketball victory over The University of Texas Wednesday at the Frank Erwin Center.
The loss drops Texas to 16-12 overall and to 5-9 in the Big 12. Oklahoma State snaps a two-game losing streak and moves to 18-9, 6-8 in the league. The Cowgirls sweep the home-and-home series with the Longhorns, after winning in Stillwater, Okla. exactly two weeks ago, 77-58.
OSU ended the game making 48.1 percent of its shots, going 26 for 54 from the floor. Texas shot 37.3 percent (22-59), and was hurt by 22 turnovers. Oklahoma State had 16 steals, the second-most by a UT opponent this year. Dominique Chism (nine points) had a game-high six thefts for the Cowgirls.
Texas had two players reach double-figure scoring - redshirt freshman forward Earnesia Williams (12 points) and redshirt freshman point guard Carla Cortijo (11 points). Cortijo also tied her career-high with a game-best nine assists.
Senior forward Tiffany Jackson was held to four points, 14 below her average, but did record the 1,000th rebound of her career. Jackson finished with six rebounds, reaching the 1,000-rebound milestone when she pulled down her final board on the defensive end with 49 seconds to go.
Jackson becomes just the fourth player in Texas basketball history to reach 1,000 rebounds.
Texas has lost five straight, marking the first time in the program's 33-year history that the Longhorns have a five-game losing streak.
Texas led at the break, 28-24, before Oklahoma State mounted a huge rally midway through the final half with a 22-2 run.
Texas held a 40-37 lead following an Ashley Lindsey layup with 12:11 to play. After that, the Cowgirls staged their big run which started with a Danielle Green layup to cut UT's lead to 40-39 with 11:53 to go. Texas then turned the ball over three times and missed a jumper, allowing OSU to take the lead for good, 41-40, on a Riley fastbreak layup with 10:08 left.
That also was the first time that Oklahoma State led in the game.
Following the Riley layup, Texas missed a jumper and two free throws, giving OSU the momentum as the Cowgirls scored 18 of the game's next 20 points. Two Sadiq free throws and layups by Taylor Hardeman and Riley pushed the lead to seven (47-40). A short jumper by Erneisha Bailey brought Texas to within five, 47-42, with 7:13 to play before OSU ripped off 12 unanswered points, capped by a Hardeman three-pointer from the wing, to lead 59-42 with 3:55 remaining.
In OSU's 22-2 run, the Longhorns went one-for-seven from the floor, 0-2 from the foul line and turned the ball over eight times in that span of 8:16.
The Longhorns led at intermission, 28-24, with Williams leading the way with nine points. Cortijo had seven in the half.
Texas used a 46.2 percent shooting effort and a transition offense en route to its four-point lead at halftime. The Longhorns scored 12 field goals and had 11 assists on the baskets, with Cortijo dishing out five of those assists.
OSU shot 38 percent in the first 20 minutes (11-for-29) and kept it close with six steals while out-scoring the Longhorns in the paint, 12-8.
UT's biggest lead was eight points, 18-10, following a Gabriell Mattox jumper with 11:19 to go. OSU tied the game at 24-24 with a 14-6 run, capped by a Dominque Chism jumper from the wing with 1:44 to play. UT took the lead into the half as Cortijo closed out the scoring with a layup and two free throws in the final 44 seconds.
Texas closes out its regular season home schedule on Saturday, Feb. 24 when it hosts Big 12 opponent Texas Tech in a 3 p.m. contest on "Texas Senior Day".
In pre-game ceremonies, taking place approximately 10 minutes prior to tipoff, the UT women's basketball program will honors its two seniors (forwards Katrina Robinson and Tiffany Jackson).
The game will air nationally on FSN (FOX Sports Net) and will be broadcast on the radio in Central Texas on KVET 1300 AM. The game also will be broadcast via internet audio.
Prior to the game, the Texas Sports Committee & Longhorn Hellraisers present a FREE "Ballin' Bash Tailgate" from 1:30-3 p.m. at the Erwin Center's North Plaza with free food and giveaways. Additionally, there will be a FREE post-game concert in the Erwin Center with Austin-based rock vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrice Pike.
For game tickets, go to TexasBoxOffice.com.
POSTGAME NOTES
- In addition to becoming only the fourth player in UT history to reach the 1,000-rebound milestone, UT senior Tiffany Jackson also moved into third place in UT career steals as she had four against OSU ... Jackson now has 306 career thefts, surpassing Esoleta Whaley (303, 1980-84) for third place... Second in career steals is Andrea Lloyd with 340 from 1983-87.
- Jackson is also the sixth player among all-time Big 12 performers to reach 1,000 career rebounds.
- Jackson also ranks No. 5 among all-time Big 12 players in career steals .. She is nine steals shy of the No. 4 spot, held by Baylor's Sophia Young who had 315 from 2003-06.
- Freshman forward Earnesia Willliams has been in double-figure scoring the last three games and has 10 double-figure scoring games to date - second-best on the club to Jackson's 22... In the last three games, Williams has scored 40 points for a 13.3 ppg average in this span.
- The loss was the fifth in a row for Texas, which is the longest losing streak in the program's 33-year history. The prior longest losing streak was four games, which took place three other times.
- This was the third time in the last eight games that the Longhorns had played at home ... Texas is now 12-5 at at the Erwin Center this year.
- Texas and OSU met earlier this month in Stillwater - exactly two weeks ago on Feb. 7 - when OSU broke a 13-game losing streak to the Longhorns with a 77-58 victory ... Since then, the Longhorns are 0-5, and OSU has gone 3-2... This marks the first time since the 1997-98 season that OSU has swept Texas in the home-and-home series.
- UT redshirt freshman Carla Cortijo has 118 assists, ranking fourth in all-time Texas freshman assists ... She needs 14 more to tie for the third spot, held by Angie Jo Ogletree who had 134 assists in her 1993-94 rookie season
OKLAHOMA STATE POSTGAME QUOTES
Oklahoma State Head Coach Kurt Budke
His general statement: This team of mine is really playing their best basketball right now. We still have a dream of making the NCAA Tournament this season, and it's in our own hands. If we win our last couple games I think we have a great shot.
Sitting next to me is Andrea Riley, and you're looking at the Big 12 Freshman of the Year right here; it's not even close. I wouldn't trade her for any point guard in this league. She's going to be a force in this league for a long time. She is so important to what we've done all year long and what we want to continue to do.
TEXAS POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas Head Coach Jody Conradt
Her general statement: Right now, it's a puzzle. I have no answers for you. We are distraught and disappointed, and had you been in the locker room with us a few minutes ago, you would have seen that. We have let ourselves down and those who support us.
But, I don't think the players or coaches know exactly what to do in helping us get past these rough spots that we keep hitting, most recently in the second half. We play along and play well, and then suddenly, after a few turnovers or missed shots, we then stop doing things that got us where we were. Tonight, our five-point lead evaporated, and once it did, we had a very hard time getting it turned around. I almost wish we didn't have a halftime. In the second half, we have not been as consistent as we need to be. We turned the ball over seven, eight times in that run they had, and we trying to force it into Tiffany (Jackson) when she was double- or triple-teamed. We did not do that in the first half, and I'm at a loss to why we tried to do that in the second half. The turnovers at that point were ridiculous.
Our defensive transition was not great tonight. When we would miss or turn it over, we ended up chasing Oklahoma State back, and were not getting ahead of them. When we made a mistake, OSU made us pay for it.
Not to just focus on us -- Oklahoma State made plays and played well tonight, like they did against us in Stillwater. We knew (Andrea) Riley was capable of playing the way she did, and we worked hard to stop her. We did a good job on her in the first half, but not in the second half.
On whether or not she feels like the team is getting closer to getting on track and breaking the losing streak: It just feels like a repeat, game after game. It's a little different time in each game, but every game we have these spells where we cannot turn it around. We had a sense of urgency at the end, but none when we needed it most in the tough spots. You have to have that sense of urgency all the time. We don't have a big margin of error on this team. Right now, it's all mental -- and we know it. We have the physical abilities, but mentally, we are not there.
Redshirt freshman Earnesia Williams
We talked in the locker room after the game about our play in the second half and how when we start making turnovers, we get down on ourselves. Once we do that, it's hard to get back up and play hard. And, we are trying to figure out and understand why that's happening now, when it didn't happen earlier in the season.
