The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
12-4, 0-2
Kansas State
10-5, 2-0
No. 15 Women's Basketball drops 77-74 OT decision to Kansas State
01.13.2008 | Women's Basketball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Behind game-highs of 21 points and six assists by junior guard Shalee Lehning, Kansas State upset the No. 15 Texas women's basketball team, 77-74, in overtime Sunday at the Frank Erwin Center.
Texas is now 12-4 overall, and starts the Big 12 slate 0-2. Kansas State moves to 10-5 overall and to 2-0 with the win. The loss for the Longhorns was UT's first at home this year in seven tries. There were seven ties and three lead changes in the contest.
Texas held a commanding 44-33 edge in rebounding, but the Longhorns were hurt by cold shooting, finishing the game shooting 38.4 percent from the field. KSU made 47.4 percent of its shots.
Texas was paced by junior post Ashley Lindsey who turned in her third double-double of the year (all in the last five games) with 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Sophomore guard Brittainey Raven (14 points), senior guard Erneisha Bailey (12 points, nine rebounds) and freshman guard Kat Nash (10 points) rounded out UT's double-figure scorers.
The game was tied after regulation, 71-71, when KSU sophomore forward Ashley Sweat scored on a driving layup with 17 seconds left to play. In its last possession, Texas missed two shots, on a short jumper by Raven and a layup attempt by Nash which was blocked by Sweat with one second remaining.
In the five-minute overtime, KSU went four-for-four from the foul line and made one of three field goal attempts, while Texas hit one of eight shots and its only foul shot.
KSU took the lead for good, 73-71, on a Lehning layup with 3:30 to go. Texas then missed two shots and a had a turnover as the Wildcats pushed the lead to four, 75-71, on two free throws by Marlies Gipson. UT then cut the lead to one, 75-74, on a Carla Cortijo layup and free throw with 59 seconds left. After a Kansas State turnover, Texas regained possession with 19 seconds left, but the Longhorns missed a shot and Kansas State's Kimberty Dietz was fouled under the basket.
Dietz sealed the game (77-74) by hitting both her free throws with three seconds left. At the buzzer, Raven missed a desperation 3-pointer for the Longhorns which bounced off the glass.
Sweat scored 20 points, Gipson had 16 and Dietz added 15 for the Wildcats.
After Texas had led the entire game, Kansas State took a 62-61 advantage for its first lead of the game, with 6:05 remaining in regulation on two free throws by Sweat. Down the stretch, the two teams traded baskets. Texas led by three, 69-66, following two free throws by Nash with 2:27 to go before the Wildcats responded with Gipson scoring on a traditional three-point play (layup and free throw) nine seconds later to knot the game at 69-69. Raven then scored her layup to make it 71-69 before Sweat sent it into overtime.
Texas had started the game with a 14-point lead, 23-9 with 11 minutes to play as seven different players scored early for the Longhorns. KSU then scored 25 points over the final 10 minutes, led by Sweat with 12 of those points and Lehning with eight. UT held a 37-34 lead at intermission, with both teams hitting 41 percent of their field goals.
For the game, Texas went 16-for-21 from the free throw line while KSU was 17-for-19 from the charity stripe. UT committed 14 turnovers while KSU made 17. Kansas State connected on six of 20 shots from 3-point territory, and Texas went two-for-15 from long range.
The Longhorns return to action on Wednesday, Jan. 16 when they host Big 12 opponent Iowa State in a 7 p.m. Central game in Austin. That game will be televised on FOX Sports Net Southwest (FSNSW) and will be broadcast live on KVET Radio 1300 AM in Central Texas and via internet audio (at subscription-based Yahoo!Sports).
POSTGAME NOTES
- Texas junior post Ashley Lindsey collected her third double-double of the year -- all coming in the last five games ... She now has six in her career, having registered three double-doubles as a freshman
- Texas is now 12-2 when leading at intermission, having lost the last two games (both Big 12 contests) after leading at the half ... Texas held a 37-34 lead against the Wildcats at the break
- UT is now 9-7 all-time in home (Erwin Center) overtime games ... Texas had won its last five overtime games (home and away) ... Ironically, the last overtime loss for Texas also came at the hands of Kansas State ... On Jan. 30, 2002, No. 14 Texas lost in double-overtime to No. 9 Kansas State, 80-76 in Austin
TEXAS POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gail Goestenkors
Her opening statement: The longer the game went, the more confidence Kansas State got. And, we also did a poor job allowing penetration at will in the second half. I feel better about this game than I did after our Nebraska game on Wednesday, however. I know we will get better -- that's what this is all about, and that we will learn a great deal from this game.
On Carla Cortijo being limited in her playing time the last two games with a left shoulder injury: It's tough. She is obviously our only true point guard. When we put Britt (Raven) at the point, it takes her off the wing and Britt usually gets some transition baskets for us when Carla is throwing it and Britt is getting down the floor. Britt is really effective at getting transition baskets -- on passes from Carla. It's affected us to a degree. We did a much better job of adjusting without her than we did at Nebraska, so hopefully she'll be back at full go for the Iowa State game.
On the play UT ran with 19 seconds left in OT and UT trailing, 75-74 (a missed Cortijo layup with six seconds to go): We wanted Carla (Cortijo) to go a little sooner. We wanted her to create. She makes really good reads. If they (Kansas State) helped off on the wings, we had Britt (Raven) down on the baseline. We had Kat (Nash) set a screen and up top, and we also rolled Ashley (Lindsey) around. We had a play set and we had options. Basically, we had three options for her (Carla), and if nobody helped on defense, we wanted her to go in for the score because she had just scored prior to that on a penetration.
Things to work on before facing Iowa State on Wednesday night in Austin: Definitely defense. For them to shoot 56 in the second half - we are better than that. For us not to stop the penetration... I know Iowa State is more of a 3-point shooting team, but in this league, you are going to have to defend both the penetration and the outside shot, and I don't know that we did either very well tonight. We definitely will get much better -- I have no doubt.
If Texas has taken positive steps from the Nebraska game to the Iowa State game: Oh, yes, it definitely was a step forward for us from Nebraska. We did not play with great passion and desire in the Nebraska game. I thought we played really hard tonight, but we didn't always play smart.
In going into the Iowa State game 0-2 in the Big 12: Every team is a big team, and every game is a big game in the Big 12. Every night is going to be a great challenge for all of us. If you've looked at the scores this week, well, I think most outsiders would think that there have been a lot of upsets, but that's status quo in this league. For us, it's all about getting better, game by game. We made improvement from the Nebraska game to today's game, and I expect more improvement when we get out there against Iowa State this week. Iowa State clearly loves to shoot the three and they do a great job in transition. They have a really nice matchup zone. They do a good job with their zones. So, it will be another great challenge for us.
SOPHOMORE GUARD Brittainey Raven
On K-State's run in the second half and on her last-second shot in regulation that did not go in: We just weren't able to fully stop their penetration in the second half. Their point guard did a really good job of finding the open posts and dumping the ball to them, and that really hurt us when we didn't stop their penetration.
About that last shot, I was going in and I probably could have taken a better shot. I was off-balance and probably could have taken a better shot but the time was running out and I just hoped that it would go in.
JUNIOR POST Ashley Lindsey
On her play against Iowa State (her third double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds): My teammates really got me the ball a lot by penetrating and dishing. In practice this week, Coach G told me to get back down on the block and not settle out for jumpers, and I worked on that today to get better shots and work on my moves. My teammates did a really good job of skipping the pass and penetrating and dishing, but, I was rushing my shot pretty much (today), and I need to work on that.
SENIOR GUARD Erneisha Bailey
On UT's offensive stall in the second half and in OT: We didn't execute on the plays that Coach (Goestenkors) was calling. We were going away from that. When we don't run the plays is when, as Coach says, we are very average. When we execute -- and we did that in the first half -- we play awesome. With our plays, we are looking to pass, we are looking to set screens. At some point in the second half, people were trying to create for themselves and we got unsure.
KANSAS STATE POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH DEB PATTERSON
Her opening statement: We had to get through our first six minutes of passive play, which we did. When we had to step up big, especially in the last seven minutes of regulation and then in overtime, we did. Texas is a very high-quality team and we are thrilled to come of here with a victory. I have so much respect for their athleticism and for the unbelievable presence I felt that Ashley Lindsey brought to the floor for them -- she kept putting so much pressure on our defense, possession after possession. Down the stretch, our ability to keep Texas from scoring on first-shot opportunities and giving ourselves opportunities with offensive rebounding was very, very critical. We switched up our defenses a little in the second half as well, which slowed Texas down.
Once we settled in and played with our heads and let the ball touch multiple hands, we got much better.
JUNIOR GUARD SHALEE LEHNING
On how Kansas State was able to battle back in the second half and overcome UT's lead: Today, we did a great job of passing. There is so much talent around me that they (opponents) have to honor those around me. If they tried to stop my drives today, we did a good job of passing and finding the open person. We have such capable shooters on the outside. We set some really good screens that opened up some driving lanes and good shots. They had to respect us shooting the three after we stepped out and hit a few in the first half.
Our interior defense did a great job of handling their physical play. Ashley Lindsey is a wonderful player, and our posts were willing to hang in there and battle on every play.
