The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
18-11, 6-9
Oklahoma
21-6, 11-4
Women's Basketball upsets No. 10 Oklahoma in Norman, 65-50
03.02.2008 | Women's Basketball
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Brittainey Raven scored 16 points and Texas prevented No. 10 Oklahoma from tying for first place in the Big 12 standings by upsetting the Sooners 65-50 on Sunday.
The Longhorns picked up a crucial win in their bid to make it back to the NCAA tournament by handing Oklahoma its first home loss to an unranked opponent since SMU beat a 15th-ranked Sooners squad 71-68 on Dec. 21, 2002. It was Texas' second straight Big 12 road win after starting conference play 0-6 outside of Austin.
Ashley Lindsey scored inside to tie the game at 33 and send the Longhorns on a 9-0 run that put them into the lead for good. Raven followed with a layup, Rachel Rentschler hit a jumper from the left wing before Kathleen Nash nailed a 3-pointer from the left corner to give the Longhorns a 40-33 lead with 8:24 to play.
Ashley Paris' basket off an offensive rebound cut the deficit to 47-42, but Texas responded with a 13-3 run that included eight free throws by Carla Cortijo as the Sooners resorted to fouling down the stretch.
Texas forced a season-high 27 turnovers by the Sooners and prevented Oklahoma from using its usual formula for overcoming sloppy play by building a 43-33 advantage on the boards. It was only the second time this season that Oklahoma was outrebounded.
Courtney Paris extended her double-doubles streak to 88 games by scoring 17 points and pulling down 15 rebounds, and Danielle Robinson added 10 points for Oklahoma.
Erneisha Bailey scored 14 points and Cortijo had 12 as Texas spoiled Oklahoma's final home game of the season. Without any seniors on the roster, the entire team stood at halfcourt with disgusted looks on their faces after the game as the public address announcer read a postgame announcement about every player returning next year.
A win would have lifted Oklahoma into a tie with Baylor and Kansas State for first place in the Big 12, but now the Sooners will need losses by both of those teams and a win at No. 20 Texas A&M to share in the conference title for a third straight season.
Oklahoma committed 18 turnovers in the first half, mixing in travels and charges with a whole slew of passes that ended up going out of bounds. After Robinson whipped the ball out of bounds along the baseline, Sooners coach Sherri Coale came to the edge of the coaches' box to shout instructions at her.
At one point midway through the period, both teams went 6 minutes without scoring.
The Sooners had their lowest scoring half at home of the season but still led 23-21 at the break.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Texas has now met 11 teams ranked in the Top 25 this season, and stands 5-6 against them
- The victory for Texas is a second this year against a top 10-ranked team... Texas upset then-No. 8 Baylor, 61-51 (Feb. 13) in Austin
- This was the 34th series meeting between Texas and Oklahoma... UT leads the series, 21-13 and today snapped OU's three-game win streak in the series
- Texas concludes Big 12 regular season road competition with a record of 2-6 -winning its last two at Kansas and at OU ... Overall on the road to date, Texas is 8-8 (4-7 in away games, 4-1 at neutral sites)
- With three blocks, Texas junior post Ashley Lindsey moves into the No. 3 spot in Texas single season blocks ... Lindsey has registered 78 rejections this season .... Today, she surpassed Angela Jackson, who had 76 blocked shots in 1996-97 ... Lindsey is seven shy of the second-highest season block total, held by 6-9 Ellen Bayer who had 85 in 1989-90 ... The year prior, Bayer the school blocked shots record with 97 in 1988-89...
- Sophomore guard Brittainey Raven, with a team-high and game-high tying 16 points, reached double-digit scoring for the 28th time in 29 games
TEXAS POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gail Goestenkors
On the game: I am very proud of my team. We have the utmost respect for Oklahoma and we knew this road win would mean a lot for our NCAA tournament bid hopes. I think we came out hungry and our team defense was the best I have seen all year long. It wasn't one person in particular, it was total team defense. Also, to compete with them and beat them on the boards, it really just doesn't happen. We tied them last time and our goal was to beat them by five this time. To outrebound this team by ten says a lot for our kids. I thought coming in that we had our backs against the wall, we played like it today.
On the magnitude of getting separation in the second half: We are used to playing sloppy, so we are very comfortable with that. Some teams when they play sloppy they get frustrated. We don't do that. We have done it so much this year that we are used to it. We just know that there is some good times coming and usually if we turn the ball over, it doesn't take us out of our game too much because it happens a lot. That is unfortunate but the good thing is that we are comfortable with that.
On what they need to do to ensure a NCAA bid: We need to win our last game at home. Even if we don't, I feel as if we are in the hunt due to our big wins throughout the season. I told the players that I felt like we needed to win three to ensure it. If we won two we would probably be on the bubble and have to do something in the Big 12 tournament. I also thought that if we lost to OU we definitely had to win the other two, but now that we have won the OU game it puts us in a good position. We don't want to leave anything to chance though when it comes to the NCAA tournament.
GUARD Brittainey Raven
On the play in the second half: I think when we got a few defensive stops and then came down and executed our offense well and got a few buckets that it really boosted our confidence. We really wanted to just continue to get stops on the defensive side and then execute well on offense for the rest of the game. We just kept rolling from there.
On the mindset of the team: I see a lot more fight in my teammates. We really want to get to the tournament and finish the conference season off strong. So everyone is doing what they need to do to get that goal accomplished. The people on the bench have confidence, the people on the floor have confidence and that's what I felt was hurting us earlier in the season. Now that everyone has confidence, we play better and I think that's how we won against Kansas and we won here today.
TEXAS FORWARD Ashley Lindsey
On the difference in points in the paint in the rematch: Well, Courtney Paris is going to get her points regardless, but to start off we knew that we were going to have to front them. The guards were able to come down and help out and I think it really frustrated her at times. That was pretty much our defensive plan though.
On Ashley Paris not getting her points: That is on my teammate [Ernesia Williams]. She played very good defense against her. For us to be able to stop both of them from getting 20 points each is pretty big for us.
GUARD Carla Cortijo
On not getting frustrated after a bad start: You just have to keep playing. You can't let all of those turnovers get into your head. Coach always talked to me about my body language after turnovers, because everyone is looking up to me. So I just kept playing and stayed positive.
OKLAHOMA POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH SHERRI COALE
On the game: We didn't play well. We blew a golden opportunity. We didn't deserve to win this game and, therefore, don't deserve a share of the Big 12 title.
On the turnovers in the first half: We've talked and talked and talked about not digging that hole, going to that switch and flipping it and not going on. It got us today. Give Texas credit. I don't want to take away anything from them. I thought they made big plays and they sure made big shots. We didn't. We didn't finish well and make open shots. But we dug ourselves a hole by how careless we were with the basketball. You can't turn it over 27 times against anybody and expect to be successful. We also got outworked and outrebounded on the boards. I can't remember the last time we were outrebounded by 10.
On Texas having better defense this time: They were much more aggressive. We weren't as strong with the ball. We seemed surprised by their aggression and by the physical play. We weren't aggressive, and we didn't attack. We shot six free throws. You have to go get yourself fouled against all that heat.
On this game being a learning experience for the road ahead: I hope we learn from it. We have to learn from it. We're very young and still have lots of basketball left to play and if you learn it before you go to the NCAA Tournament. That's perfect because if you lose one there you're done. So if we learn from it, that's what it's all about. That's what happens in March that everybody remembers and how you feel in the spring anyway. So we've still got that ahead of us.
SOPHOMORE GUARD JENNA PLUMLEY
On if Oklahoma was prepared for the game: No, I don't think we were there mentally. I don't think we were sharing the basketball and nobody stepped up like they wanted the basketball, today. I think it is that we all just need to come out together and play at one speed because all of us playing together is a different story and that is what we didn't do today.
FORWARD AMANDA THOMPSON
On if letting the score get away cause OU to force bad decisions: I don't think it clicked in our heads that we were down and we did not respond to it.
On who is accountable for the performance: I felt we were all waiting on somebody to do something when we couldn't get it up to (Courtney Paris). We were not doing our jobs as guards to get the ball to the post. We could have gotten ourselves going but not everybody was doing that. That kept us from getting going. It was everybody.
