The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
5-2
Oral Roberts
4-2
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| ORU | 40 | 40 | 80 |
| Texas | 43 | 51 | 94 |
No. 17 Women's Basketball downs Oral Roberts, 94-80
12.01.2009 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2009
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Erika Arriaran made seven 3-pointers and scored a career-high 23 points, helping No. 17 Texas shake off a rocky first half to beat Oral Roberts 94-80 on Tuesday night.
Arriaran set a career best for 3s and grabbed four rebounds. Brittainey Raven added a season-high 16 points, and Kat Nash finished with 19 points and nine rebounds for the Longhorns (5-2).
Kevi Luper was held to 19 points on 6-of-16 shooting for Oral Roberts (4-2). The freshman guard was leading the nation 30.3 points per game after scoring 29 against Sam Houston State the previous night.
In the first six minutes of the second half, Arriaran made three 3-pointers. Her long-range shooting combined with stingy Texas defense keyed a 22-11 run that gave the Longhorns their biggest lead, 60-49.
POST-GAME NOTES
TEAM
-Texas used an 8-0 run from 16:15 - 15:07 to spark its largest lead of the first half, 15-6.
-Texas used an 18-6 run from 18:01 - 13:55 to spark its largest lead of the second half, 63-51.
-Texas held ORU without a field goal from 9:09 to 1:38 in the second half, a span of seven minutes and 31 seconds.
-Four Longhorns scored in double-figures for the second time this season (Erika Arriaran - 23; Kat Nash - 19; Ashleigh Fontenette - 15; Brittainey Raven - 16). Texas is 2-0 this season with four or more players reaching double-figures.
-ORU tied the game at 45 with a 3-point basket by Jaci Bigham with 18:14 remaining in the first half.
-UT is 5-0 this season when out-shooting its opponent from 3-point range (42.9% - 33.3%).
-Texas' 13 blocked shots tie for the third most in Texas' single-game history and are the most since 14 against McNeese State (Dec. 1, 2004).
-The Horns recorded a season-high 12 3-point baskets.
-The 12 3-pointers made are the third most in a game in UT's single-game records.
-Texas committed a season-high 25 turnovers, while forcing 18.
-The Longhorns held the nation's leading scorer, Kevi Luper, to 19 points, 11 below her season average of 30 ppg.
-Texas held Oral Roberts, the nation's leading offense, to 80 points, 10 below its average of 90 ppg.
Erika Arriaran
-Scored a career-high 23 points (8-of-15 FG, 7-of-12 3FG), 11 of which came in the first half.
-Set a career-high in 3-pointers made with seven
-Seven made from 3-point range tie for the fourth most in a game in school history.
-Scored 10 or more points for the 42nd time of her career and second time this season.
-Scored 20 or more points for the third time of her career and first since Nov. 18, 2008 (21 vs. St. Mary's).
-Led the team in scoring for the 16th time of her career and first time this season.
Ashleigh Fontenette
-Recorded 15 points (4-of-7 FG, 1-of-2 3FG, 6-of-8 FT) for her second-straight double-digit effort and third over the last four games.
-Scored 10 or more points for the 13th time of her career and fourth time this season.
-Pulled down season-high seven rebounds, one shy of her career high (8 at Baylor, Feb. 1, 2009)
Ashley Gayle
-Pulled down nine rebounds, one shy of her career-high.
-Recorded five blocks to move her career total to 80.
-Has posted 20 blocks this season and is now just four blocks shy of cracking UT's sophomore top 10 list in that category (10. Anissa Hastings, 2001-02, 24 blocks)
Kathleen Nash
-Scored 19 points (8-of-16 FG, 3-of-7 3FG) for her fifth double-digit outing of the year and fifth in the last six games.
-Scored 10 or more points for the 37th time of her career.
-Tied season-high with nine rebounds.
Brittainey Raven
-Recorded 12th-straight double-digit with season high 16 points (7-of-11 FG, 0-3 3FG, 2-2 FT), 14 of which came in the first half.
-Scored 10 or more points for the 70th time of her career and the seventh time this season.
-Knocked down season-high seven field goals.
Cokie Reed
-Pulled down a career-high 10 rebounds.
-Led the team in rebounds for the first time of her career.
TEXAS QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gail Goestenkors
Opening statement: Just glad to come away with the win, we had seen tape and we knew what an outstanding team Oral Roberts was, they are very deceptive. They just do a really good job attacking, taking the ball to the basket, drawing fouls and when you do help, they find the open player. They really just play great team basketball so we knew we were going to be in for a battle, especially considering this was our fourth game in five days and we had traveled from the Virgin Islands, so I was a little worried about fatigue, but overall, I was just very pleased with our effort defensively. They're not an easy team to defend, there's a reason why they're leading the nation in scoring and I'll be surprised if they don't end up leading the nation in scoring offense because they can flat out score and that is a very, very good team and very difficult to defend.
On making 3-pointers: Erika [Arriaran] has been hitting her shot in practice and she's been hitting her mid-range shots in games, she just hasn't been hitting her three. It's been close, it's been right on so we've just encouraged her to keep shooting but I think the best thing is that Ericka has still been so valuable to the team. I think sometimes some people think she's got to hit her shot to be valuable and sometimes I think she is worried about that as well if she isn't hitting her shot, but this year she's really improved her defense, she's improved her rebounding, so even when she wasn't hitting, she knew we needed her on the floor and I think that's given her a lot of confidence to know it's OK and maybe taken some pressure off of having to hit that shot to be in the game. It's been coming, we knew it was coming and she's been hitting it in practice, so I'm just really happy for her because she's persevered.
On involving the posts in the first half: They were so wide open. There defense is very unorthodox and we certainly had the size advantage so we knew we wanted to go inside. We just had a hard time. They're very deceptive on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively, and they got their hands on a lot of passes and I think we forced some things. When we got in to our posts, they were in such a rush that they weren't finishing their shots either so it was a tough combination. We did a much better job in the second half getting the ball to the posts with good passes and they finished the shots.
On deep passes: We want to go looking first if we can with the outlet passes and they did a good job of hassling the rebounder, but when they do that, we knew that we had some people that would be open if we would look on so that's always our first option is to look long.
SENIOR GUARD Erika Arriaran
On practicing 3-point shots: I agree with what Coach was saying and we talked about it but I think I put a lot of pressure on myself. I know during these past few games, I've been thinking so much about my shot and I promised myself today that I was just going to finally relax and let it fly and quit thinking so much. I think that really helped and also my teammates were getting me wide open shots which is nice to finally get.
On putting pressure on herself: I guess I'm pretty intense and I usually stress out about a lot of things, so I think that just like Coach said, I have to concentrate on other things and if the shots not on it's not on but I can help in other ways and that's what I really need to concentrate on instead of just thinking to shoot.
SENIOR GUARD Brittainey Raven
On Erika [Arriaran] hitting her shots: For our opponents, I think it makes us really difficult to guard us because they know me and Ashleigh [Fontenette] are going to drive but if they help, we have Erika and Kathleen [Nash] out there so either way we are going to score. It makes it hard on them and easy for us.
On loosening Erika up: All of us get on Erika when she doesn't shoot or she has second thoughts about shooting, it's like, "You're a great shooter, just shoot. If we work to get you a good shot, you better take it and if it's not falling right then and there, eventually it will." So we just try to keep giving her confidence and encouraging her because she's going to make it when we need it the most.
On coming off the bench: It really doesn't bother me not starting. Sitting on the bench, I feel like I can give more encouragement and I can talk to them and tell them what we need to improve on and when I go in the game, it's like I know where to pick it up at and just getting in there and doing what I would normally do when I started.
On getting quick baskets when entering the game: When I get in, I just play my game and if I score four-straight, that's fine and I get back on defense and do my thing on defense and just go with the flow of the game.
On energizing the team by taking charges: I can tell at certain points in the game when we need energy so any little thing, I just try to get us going and I know a charge is a big deal for us. They had been beating us on penetrations so once I got it, I just do my thing and get excited and get our team going and we get down to the other end.
SOPHOMORE GUARD Ashleigh Fontenette
On getting teammates wide open: I think as a team we've all proven that we can drive the ball and we drive really well, so when ewe do drive, usually the defense on Kat and Erika have to help off and it leaves them wide open.
ORAL ROBERTS QUOTES
HEAD COACH JERRY FINKBEINER
Opening statement: Well we can take a lot from this game. We played four freshmen a lot of minutes tonight. We basically came in thinking can we close the gap where we were two weeks against Kansas, coming here against another Big 12 opponent that has a lot of respect. We probably played better tonight than we did two weeks ago so we accomplished our main objective. We're going to win one time out of 500 down here to be realistic right now just playing with so much youth. I liked our 40 minutes. I liked our freshmen and the way they responded to a game in this environment. We've had three games in four days so that's another obstacle in front of our girls. We came through and we're going to go home and build on this.
On possibly running out of gas: I think it was more mental gas. I think we ran out of . I think its probably more of a young team not being in this situation and realizing you can't take a break. I asked them numerous times if they needed a break or need a sub and they said `no we're okay coach'. But I've got a lot of patience with this group I think we're a 20-win team at our level. Our philosophy is we're going to score a 100, can you. Tonight our shooting really hurt us in the first half with the open shots. I think we could have had the lead at half time. Our 3-point shooters weren't hitting. That's our basic philosophy, we're going to get a 100, can you. That's our basic philosophy and obviously tonight we didn't get it so we're looking at a loss that way. But we're better than we were two weeks ago. If Texas wants to compare this game in any way, we're better than we were two weeks ago.
On the Texas defense: When we were able to shake [Brittainey] Raven and the Texas defense and drive the lane, you had 6-4 waiting for you. They did a good job with the second line defense. We don't face those 6-4's in our league so it was good for us to experience that second line defense. If you shake it in the Summit League, you've got a bucket.
FRESHMAN GUARD KEVI LUPER
On Texas' defense: They didn't do anything special defense on front, but the girl that was guarding me was pretty faced up on me the whole time. I don't know if I ever had even a few feet of just comfort. They just played really good defense, I tried crashing the boards as hard as I could, I was running the floor and was looking for my open shots but I obviously wasn't getting any open shots in the first half unless it was penetration or something like that. I think I only had one open shot in the first half which was a three, which was one of our plays for that shot so that worked well. [Brittainey] Raven played pretty good face-up defense on me.
