The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
16-8, 4-6
Baylor
21-3, 9-2
Women's Basketball upsets No. 8 Baylor, 61-51
02.13.2008 | Women's Basketball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Sophomore guard Brittainey Raven netted a team-high 18 points, with 11 of those points coming down the stretch in the final seven minutes of play, to lift unranked Texas to a 61-51 upset victory over No. 8 Baylor Wednesday night in Big 12 women's basketball action.
Texas improves to 16-8 overall and to 4-6 in the Big 12, snapping a three-game losing streak, with all those games against Top 25 opponents.
Baylor had entered the game as the league leader, and goes to 21-3 overall and to 9-2 in the Big 12. The Lady Bears were held to 39.7 percent shooting as UT employed a trapping, man-to-man defense. The 51 points scored were the lowest point total by the Lady Bears since Jan. 18, 2003 -- ironically, in a 70-50 loss to No. 20 Texas, a game also played in Austin.
Joining Raven in double-figure scoring were senior guard Erneisha Bailey (13 points) and junior post Ashley Lindsey (10 points). Bailey had a team-best eight rebounds, while Lindsey pulled down seven boards and had a game-best four blocks.
The game was played at the Frank Erwin Center in front of 7,561 on "Think Pink" night, a national initiative coordinated by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association to support breast cancer education, research and funding. The UT arena was filled with fans wearing pink and waving pink signs and balloons in support of fighting breast cancer.
The game saw six ties and seven lead changes.
Raven (Fort Worth, Texas) had two 3-pointers in the final seven minutes among her 11 points to stop Baylor from making a late run to win the game.
The game was tied for the last time at 37-37 when UT took the lead for good, 39-37, on an Earnesia Williams' jumper with 8:44 to play. Neither team scored again until Raven hit her first 3-pointer from straightway with 7:06 to go for a 42-37 edge. Baylor cut the lead to three, 44-41, on an Angela Tisdale jumper with 6:12 left before Raven pushed the lead back to six, 47-41 with her second consecutive 3-pointer.
The Lady Bears got within 52-49 on a layup by Jessica Morrow with two minutes to go, but could get no closer as UT closed out the game with a 9-2 run. That 9-2 run was triggered by Raven with three points and a steal.
Baylor's last chance came after Morrow stole the ball with one minute left and had a chance to cut the lead to two, but Raven snuck in behind her in the lane to poke the ball away for her third steal of the game. Raven found Bailey on a fastbreak on the play, and Bailey's layup gave UT a 57-51 edge with 51 seconds remaining.
Texas shot 48 percent in the final half, going 14 for 29 from the floor to build on its 26-19 lead at intermission.
For the game, the Longhorns hit 39.7 percent of their shots (23-58). Baylor held a 37-36 edge in rebounding. Both teams turned the ball over 19 times. The difference was in points off turnovers, as UT led that category (18-13) and in 3-pointers. The Longhorns went six-for-16 from long range while Baylor was 2-for-11.
Baylor was led by Jessica Morrow (game-high 19 points), the only BU player in double-figure scoring. Top scorer and senior point guard Angela Tisdale (15.0 ppg entering the game) was held to nine points on 1-for-10 shooting from the floor, mostly by the defense of Bailey. Tisdale was seven-for-eight from the foul line. Rachel Allision (eight points) had a game-high 11 rebounds.
Texas returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 16 when it travels to Boulder, Colo. to face Big 12 opponent Colorado (13-11, 2-9) in an 8 p.m. Central game.
POSTGAME NOTES
- With the win, Texas moves to 10-2 at home this year and snaps its three-game losing streak, which started on Jan. 30 in the 61-60 loss at Baylor
- Baylor was the eighth Top 25 opponent for Texas this season; with the win, Texas is now 4-4 against Top 25 foes to date and has just concluded a stretch of playing four consecutive top 25 teams, going 1-3 in this span
- The loss for Baylor marked the first time since April of 2003 that BU has lost to an unranked team -- that month, Baylor lost to unranked Auburn in the Women's NIT (WNIT) postseason championship game
- The 51 points scored by Baylor was the lowest point total by the Lady Bears since Jan. 18, 2003 -- in a 70-50 loss to No. 20 Texas, also in Austin
- UT junior post Ashley Lindsey has now been in double-figure scoring seven consecutive games, the longest string of double-digit scoring games in her career and the second-longest such streak for a UT player this year ... The longest for UT was 20 games by Brittainey Raven to start the year
- With four blocks, Ashley Lindsey moves into the No. 5 position in Texas career blocks... The 6-4 junior now has 152 career rejections, and tonight surpassed Retha Swindell (150 blocks, 1976-79) for fifth place... Lindsey is four blocks away from tying for the No. 4 spot, held by Joy Williams ... Williams had 158 blocks from 1979-83
- Raven, with a team-high 18 points, has now notched 10-plus points in 23 of 24 games ... The only game she did not score in double-figures was in the Jan. 30th game at Baylor (seven points)
- With 13 points, UT senior guard Erneisha Bailey notched double-digit points for the first time in eight games ... an All-Big 12 Defensive Team player last year, Bailey also was assigned to BU's top scorer, point guard Angela Tisdale, who entered with a 15.0 ppg average ... tonight, Tisdale went 1-10 from the floor and 7-for-8 from the free throw line, finishing with nine points
- This was the 10th game of the year, and the sixth of the last nine, decided by 10 points or less.. Texas is now 6-4 in games decided by 10 points or less -- 4-1 in overall games decided by 6-10 points (and 2-1 in Big 12 games), and 2-3 overall in games decided by five points or less (2-2 in Big 12)
- The Texas victory ends Baylor's five-game win streak in the series ... The last win for Texas against Baylor had been during 2004-05 when No. 15 UT upset No. 4 Baylor, 69-55 in Austin on Jan. 22, 2005 ... The significance of that Texas win? That was the last loss for the Lady Bears that season, as the 33-3 Lady Bears won their final 20 games en route to the NCAA title
- The 19 points that Texas yielded to Baylor in the first half (in jumping out to a 26-19 halftime edge) were the least amount of first-half points allowed by the Longhorns in 10 games ... this dates back to Jan. 9, when UT led Nebraska at intermission, 19-17...
- In games where Texas leads at intermission, the Longhorns are now 15-2 overall (3-2 in the Big 12)
TEXAS POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gail Goestenkors
Opening statement: I'm really proud of our team. I thought this was a great team effort. We had some highs and we had some lows, but I saw some great character displayed in the game and we withstood the runs Baylor made late in the game.
Ashley (Lindsey) didn't start off strong as they were double-teaming her and she turned the ball over six times in the first half, but I was extremely proud of the way she fought back. The same with Brittainey (Raven). She wasn't taking many shots and wasn't making the ones she took early on, but she hit the big ones late. Same with E-Bay (Erneisha Bailey). She did a great job with guarding Tisdale tonight and not allowing her to penetrate. Overall, it was a tremendous effort by the team.
At times, it was a struggle. We were so cold from the outside and Baylor kept sagging and sagging some more. But the players never stopped working hard to get the good shots, and they never let up on defense. We knew that if we were going to win we would win with our defense and that sooner or later the shots would fall.
In the final minutes of the game what she told her team during timeouts: We didn't talk about anybody in particular getting the ball. We just talked about keeping our poise and running the offense and getting the stops on defense. I was more concerned with our defense because I thought (Angela) Tisdale and (Jessica) Morrow were going to take the game over, so I just tried to get our players focused every timeout.
On UT's defensive stance throughout the game: We pressed a lot in the first game (against Baylor) with a half-court trap and we got some tips. That was effective but we changed things up defensively tonight, playing a lot of man.
I think we showed much more poise. I think we're growing as a team and each experience has made us better and a little wiser. Tonight we played much wiser basketball than we have in the past. And when they made a run in the second half, we kept our poise and had our own run.
We try to create offense with our defense so trapping and getting steals is an important part of our jump-starting our offense because anytime we get a layup, that creates energy.
On playing Big 12 South Division teams for the second time now: I think our entire coaching staff feels much more comfortable going into round two (of Big 12 play) because we have a better feel for our opponents' coaches and what they're going to run. You can watch film and games on TV, and we have watched a lot of film this year, but until you see a team in person, you can't tell what they're going to do. And we as coaches feel more confident in terms of what plays they're going to run and what they're going to do in certain situations.
The crowd: The students were incredible tonight. I usually don't hear fans at all but I could hear the students and that meant a lot. When Baylor made their runs, you could feel the energy in the building trying to help us through. I certainly hope they will come back.
SOPHOMORE GUARD Brittainey Raven
Lately I've been trying to work on my outside shots. In the past couple games they hadn't been falling for me. But once I hit the first one, I felt comfortable and relaxed.
It feels great coming off three losses and beating the number eight team in the country. When you keep staying in the game and playing hard, you'll get the win.
On "Think Pink" initiative at the game, in support of breast cancer education and research, and what it means to the players: I have a couple family members who have or have had breast cancer, and unfortunately, my grandmother passed away from this disease when I was a sophomore in high school. To have people come out and support it (Think Pink) means a real lot. I knew that if she (my grandmother) was here, she would be really proud to see people support breast cancer and come together and try to end it.
BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH KIM MULKEY
Opening statement: Let's just credit their defense. I thought it was great -- no, outsatnding. They trapped (Angela) Tisdale a lot and she was fighing for her life out there. We were not able to make the right passes to the right player because their defense, and the play of Erneisha Bailey, was very physical and she (Tisdale) couldn't deliver it. I thought (Danielle) Wilson accepted the challenge better at half time and she played better in the second half. We missed too many free throws. You can't beat people on the road if you don't make your free throws and take care of the basketball or have some kind of post player. We didn't have that tonight. Credit Texas for the defense.
In the end, Texas made good shots. That's how you win ball games. Andy time someone makes a run you quiet their run by making your shots -- which we didn't. Give Texas credit. They've lost some close ones but they won one tonight.
On Texas' defense: They played more man-to-man tonight than they did in Waco (Jan. 30). I thought they mixed their defense more tonight than they did at our place. I was looking at the turnovers and assists and they were pretty equal. The bottom line was that their guards made shots when the game was tight and that's what you do to win the game.
We talked about the post being nonexistent. You can't win in this league or the national level if you don't have posts that can't score. Give credit to our opponent tonight, but we missed too many shots and that's what we talked about at the half.
