The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
15-7, 3-5
Oklahoma
15-4, 5-2
No. 25 Women's Basketball falls to No. 10 Oklahoma, 74-58
02.03.2008 | Women's Basketball
AUSTIN, Texas -- The junior sister duo of Courtney and Ashley Paris combined for 34 points and 18 rebounds as No. 11 Oklahoma posted a 74-58 victory over No. 25 Texas in Big 12 women's basketball action Sunday afternoon in front of 6,132 at the Frank Erwin Center.
The Longhorns are now 15-7 overall and 3-5 in the Big 12, while OU moves to 15-4 and to 5-2 in the league.
There were seven lead changes in the game. With the Sooners up by one, 55-54 with 10:23 to go, the Longhorns had their coldest shooting stretch of the season, missing 10 consecutive shots to go with four turnovers over the next seven minutes. During this stretch, OU scored 19 unanswered points, with Courtney Paris and freshman guard Danielle Robinson scoring six points apiece.
Sophomore redshirt forward Earnesia Williams led the Longhorns with 14 points. Sophomore guard Brittainey Raven and junior post Ashley Lindsey each added 12 points, while redshirt sophomore point guard Carla Cortijo finished with 10 points and four assists. Freshman guard Kat Nash (four points) came off the bench and registered a career-high 13 rebounds. It was the most rebounds by a Longhorn this season.
The Longhorns were hurt by a 30.9 shooting effort, the team's lowest in conference play this season, while Oklahoma shot 55.9 percent for the game, the highest shooting accuracy of the year by a Longhorn opponent.
Both teams pulled down 38 rebounds, and UT turned the ball over just 12 times to OU's 16 turnovers. The Sooners, however, dominated play in the paint, out-scoring UT 52-20 down low.
Courtney Paris finished with 20 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocks, while Ashley Paris and Robinson each added 14 points.
Texas trailed 42-33 at halftime, but climbed back into contention as Lindsey got on a roll, scoring 10 points in less than eight minutes. All of Lindsey's 12 points came in the final half.
OU shot 62.1 percent from the floor in the first half in taking its 42-33 lead. Texas shot just 28 percent in the first half (9-32).
Behind Lindsey, Texas erased an 11-point Sooner lead (46-35) and tied the game at 48-all on a Lindsey jumper from the top of the key with 13:23 to go. OU regained the lead for good on its next possession, however, as Jenna Plumley knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 51-48 with 13:01 left. The game went back and forth for the next four minutes, with Texas cutting the lead to one twice, first at 53-53 and then to 55-54 on a Cortijo jumper with 10:23 remaining. It was at that point that the UT offense sputtered and OU went on its big run.
For the game, Texas connected on five three-pointers (5-20), its most in five games. OU went 3-for-13 from 3-point territory. Texas hit 11 of 16 free throws, while OU was five-for-eight from the charity stripe.
Texas will not play a mid-week game this week. The Longhorns return to action on Saturday, Feb. 9, traveling to College Station, Texas to face Big 12 opponent No. 23 Texas A&M in a State Farm Lone Star Showdown contest. The game takes place at 11 a.m. Central and will be televised on FSN national TV.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Sophomore guard Brittainey Raven (12 points) returned to the double-figure scoring column after her 20-game streak of 10-plus points ended with the Baylor game Wednesday night ... She has now scored in double-figures 21 times.
- Texas is now 9-2 at home this year.
- The Longhorns are 3-3 against Top 25 competition to date.
- Freshman guard Kat Nash came off the bench and played 25 minutes, adding four points while pulling down a career-best and team-high 13 rebounds ... It marked the fourth time that Nash has been in double-figure rebounding this season ... Those 13 boards were the most by a Texas player this season.
- Junior post Ashley Lindsey (12 points, 4 rebounds) was in double-figure scoring for the 13th time this year ... She has been in double-figure scoring the last five games, the longest such streak of her career.
TEXAS POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gail Goestenkors
Opening statement: Give credit to Oklahoma, they did a great job of their size advantage in the inside and some of their quickness on the outside. They killed us with their points in the paint and that came from their guards penetrating and transitions. I am proud of my team and the way they responded in the second half. I am really proud of Ashley [Lindsey] in particular because I don't think she competed in the first half. We are asking a lot of her. This was a situation where she hasn't played a lot in the past in a huge game like this, against one of the best post players in the country. I thought she came out in the second half determined and ready and I thought she showed signs of things to come. I am proud of her and the way the team competed in the second half. It was close and then they went on a run late in the second half. I don't know how much gas we had left in the tank when we needed to close the game out.
On what she told the team in timeouts: We were just talking about how if we were going to win the game, it would come from our defense and our rebounding. Their looks were much too easy in the post. We thought we could sure up our defense a little bit and if we could make some transitions for ourselves that would get us back in the game.
On the Paris twins only having one foul apiece: It's amazing how they can be so physical and only have one foul throughout the entire game. I've been fortunate to coach Courtney Paris before and I have great respect for Courtney both on the court and off the court. She's an incredible player in person and on the court.
JUNIOR GUARD Carla Cortijo
On the second half play: Our tempo just went down and we turned the ball over a couple of times. Their penetration killed us along with their rebounding ability while they were making their run. And, when they had their run, that's when our energy slowed down and we had some turnovers.
On the game in general and what OU did to pull away: Oklahoma is a hard team to defend with the Paris sisters and their point guard was doing a really good job today with penetrating the lane. We fought hard today and there was nothing else we could do in terms of playing hard. We just had turnovers and too many missed shots against a team that is not going to let you hit the boards a lot.
JUNIOR FORWARD Earnesia Williams
On playing three ranked opponents in a row (Baylor, Oklahoma, then Texas A&M on Feb. 9): The Baylor loss (61-60), it was a close loss and it was a tough loss for all of us to handle. This league is really hard every night, no matter who you play. Right now, we just have to go back to work and watch film and see why our intensity dropped on defense today and fix the problems that we can control.
On playing against and guarding Ashley Paris: I just tried to be physical along with them (the Paris twins) and try not to foul them. I tried my best just to keep Ashley off the boards as hard as I could. It got easier when we started fronting the posts because I could use my backside to box them out. I just tried to be physical and to match their intensity. They are really tough when they play together out there.
JUNIOR POST Ashley Lindsey
On her second half performance: Coach (Goestenkors) told me at halftime to step my game up in the second half, which I did. I wasn't really myself in the first half and wasn't playing like I can, and I didn't do the things that I wanted to do or needed to do towards our game plan. It came to the point where I needed to step up my game in the second half, which I did. But, I need to play that way and contribute to our team every minute.
On Oklahoma's game plan: On their late second half run, I don't think they switched their game plan at all. They kept going into the Paris twins and Danielle Robinson kept taking the ball to the hole. That was how they were effective.
On the Paris twins: Courtney and Ashley are both very very good players and they are both very strong. The way I play them is I try to beat them with my quickness. I tried to get around them and tried to front them, and when we did that, our defense was better.
OKLAHOMA POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH SHERRI COLE
Opening statement: This was a big win for our team and I thought we responded to Texas' run in the second half very well. For a young bunch on the road in this environment, this win was huge. I am very proud of our effort and I thought that Courtney [Paris] and Ashley [Paris] were tremendous from start to finish owning the paint. Danielle Robinson got involved in the second half and she did not look like a freshman out there. This was a huge win and I am very proud of our kids.
On Texas' pressure defense: We expected them to play with great intensity, whether in the full or half court. Our breaking of their full court press early probably made them get away from that. I thought we handled their half-court trap extremely well. We turned the ball over in the half-court against their man-to-man defense. The key is to be strong with the ball every year when we play against Texas.
On Danielle Robinson's play: She was able to get us in a set and execute the set and find the open person. When all that pressure is out there, you are pretty much one-on-one and she is very good at that.
JUNIOR CENTER COURTNEY PARIS
On playing Texas again at home: I knew that they play well at home and we knew that coming in because we came down here last year and we lost to them. We knew that they were going to have a lot of energy and that we would have to play tough.
On the play of Ashley Lindsey: They started to give her the ball more in the second half that worked out well for them. She is tall and lanky and she can get around you and get good angles. They saw that she was doing good down there and went to her.
FRESHMAN GUARD DANIELLE ROBINSON
On her effort: I started out kind of slow in the first half and the game itself was very physical. I knew I had to come out in the second half and get more involved, especially when they made that run early in the second half. I think it was my job to give our team a spark.
On their layups in the second half: We actually started using ball screens more and we would either show or give them the slip and we tried to get to the rim.
JUNIOR FORWARD ASHLEY PARIS
On the physical game and having Earnesia Williams (6-0) guard her: It was very physical out there. Earnesia Williams is very physical. She's a little undersized but she makes you pay for everything you get and she worked extremely hard. I thought they were all pretty physical tonight.
