The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
12-5, 3-2
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Kansas *
8-9, 1-4
Women's Basketball defeats Kansas, 70-58
01.15.2014 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns improve to 9-1 at home behind Imani McGee-Stafford's career-high 24 points.
Box Score (PDF) | Notes | Quotes | Photo Gallery
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Women's Basketball team improved to 9-1 at home this season by defeating Kansas on Wednesday night at the Frank Erwin Center, 70-58.
Sophomore Imani McGee-Stafford led Texas with a career-high 24 points off 10-of-17 shooting from the field in 29 minutes. McGee-Stafford also grabbed 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. Junior Nneka Enemkpali chipped in eight points with 11 boards.
Texas (12-5, 3-2) never trailed for the entire game and led by as many as 17 at the 16:37 mark of the second half.
McGee-Stafford scored 17 of her 24 points in the first half to go along with five rebounds. Texas ended the first half on a 12-to-7 run to head into halftime with a comfortable 12-point lead, 39-27. The Longhorns committed only four first-half turnovers and outscored Kansas 22-to-8 in the paint.
The Longhorns opened the second half on a 9-to-3 run over the first 3:23 behind two jumpers by freshman Nekia Jones. Kansas answered with a run of their own, outscoring the Longhorns 14-to-4 over the next 5:04 span to cut Texas' lead to seven. That was the closest the Jayhawks would come, as the Longhorns outscored Kansas 18-to-13 to close out the second half.
Texas, who entered the game out-rebounding their opponents by a plus-12.3 margin, out-rebounded the Jayhawks 43-26 for the game, grabbing 27 rebounds in the second half alone. Texas also outscored Kansas 36-to-24 in the paint for the game.
Chelsea Gardner led the Jayhawks (8-9, 1-4) with 11 points and three rebounds.
The Longhorns continue Big 12 Conference play on the road at TCU on Jan. 19 at 1 p.m. Central on Fox Sports Southwest.
TEAM NOTES
• Series: Wednesday's game marked the 26th meeting between Texas and Kansas. Texas now leads the series, 16-10.
• Starters: Sophomore Celina Rodrigo, sophomore Brady Sanders, senior GiGi Mazionyte, freshman Nekia Jones, and sophomore Imani McGee-Stafford. This is the first time this starting lineup has been used this season. Jones made her first career start. It marked the second career start for Mazionyte, whose only other career start came at Kansas on Jan. 23, 2013.
• Texas shot 47.1 percent in the first half (16-of-34) and forced nine first-half turnovers on the Jayhawks.
• As a team, Texas grabbed 22 offensive rebounds, the most offensive boards since recording 23 against Northwestern State on Dec. 20, 2013. Over the last three games, Texas has averaged 18.7 offensive rebounds per game.
• UT out-scored Kansas in the paint, 36-to-24. Texas has out-scored or tied all 17 opponents in the paint this season.
• Texas committed a season-low 14 fouls. No player committed more than three fouls.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Imani McGee-Stafford (Sophomore, C)
• Scored a career-high 24 points (10-17 FG) with 10 rebounds in 28 minutes for her third double-double of the season and 16th of her career. Her 10 FG made marks a career high.
• Surpassed her previous season-high in scoring (16 points) in the first half alone, posting 17 points (7-10 FG).
Empress Davenport (Sophomore, G)
• Scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds in 23 minutes of play.
• Tied for a team- and game-high in assists with three (Brady Sanders also had three assists).
• Has averaged six rebounds per game over the last three games.
Nekia Jones (Freshman, F)
• Made her first career start.
• Scored nine points (4-7 FG) in just 13 minutes.
Nneka Enemkpali (Junior, F)
• Came off the bench for the first time this season, scoring eight pionts with 11 rebounds in 29 minutes. It marked her sixth double-digit rebounding effort of the season.
GiGi Mazionyte (Senior, G)
• Made her second career start and first of the season.
Chassidy Fussell (Senior, G)
• Played for the first time after suffering a knee injury against Idaho on Dec. 28, 2013.
• Scored seven points in 14 minutes of play.
Brady Sanders (Sophomore, G)
• Played a game-high 33 minutes. Has averaged 32.6 minutes per game over the last five games.
Texas Quotes
Head Coach Karen Aston
Opening statement: I was really pleased to get the win. Anytime you get a Big 12 win you have to be happy about that. I didn't quite know how our team would respond to an extremely disappointing loss on Sunday. We didn't have the opportunity to take any time off to regroup so I was really pleased that we bounced back. I thought that we had some individual performances that were really good, obviously starting with Imani (McGee-Stafford). I thought that Nneka (Enemkpali) was good; she got back on track, especially in the rebounding end. I'm really pleased right now with our point guard play. It's dual right now, one of them sort of feeds off the other one, but I do like that we're getting quite a bit of leadership from that position. I'm really pleased that we got the win.
On the win giving Aston an overall winning record at Texas: I feel good about that, just that we won. That's all I'm worried about right now. I'm not paying a lot of attention to that. I'm pleased that we have 12 wins. I'm really, really pleased that our team is continuing to improve. That's what we're worried about right now, just trying to get better every game. I think we have so much youth and we still have some players that I think can play better than we're playing. We'll keep getting better.
On Nekia Jones' performance: She really gave us a good push in the second half in particular. In the first half we got off to a good start, which was good, you never know how they're going to handle the starting spot of they've never done that. I thought that she was prepared for that, and that comes from their practice habits and how you have to stay ready. You don't ever know when your number is going to be called. In particular she and GiGi (Mazionyte), I think, work hard every day. They try to focus on the things that we're working on and, therefore, when they're asked to go in, they're prepared.
On if she felt the team needed this win: I did because it was at home. I don't want to say that the West Virginia loss needed to happen at all or that it should have. But it was a road game and when they got the momentum that made the difference. Just like the Oklahoma game made a difference here. When we gained momentum late in the game, the crowd was tremendous for us. I think right now our team is a little more comfortable at home so we needed to win this game for a lot of reasons.
Sophomore Center Imani McGee-Stafford
On if she felt like she could have a big game tonight: Before our league games, I watch the games from last year and I did well against Kansas last year at home. Our coaches have been talking to me throughout this week of practice and telling me to be more aggressive on offense and taking shots if I have a shot. So that was my goal today, if I had a shot to take it and it worked out.
On finishing strong: It's definitely something that we talk about every day in practice. I think this year we're really understanding that our practice habits carry over to games because coach will show us or say it when it starts happening in practice. I think that's the one thing we're noticing so when coach says it, we're all on the bench like, "Okay, let's pick it up. This is the same thing, let's turn it around." Today we responded.
Kansas Quotes
Kansas Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
On if the key to the game was the number of shots taken by Texas: They've got 14 more shots, in the first half they really put 10 more shots and then it gets more magnified because more offensive rebounds in the second half. Most teams, on average, most teams first shot is about 34%, second shot 60%, and the third 80%. So it just keeps getting higher and higher because it's closer to the rim. You get extra possessions and you're the first to get back in. We had to score quick. Which means you had to force turnovers, score in transition and score when the clock is not running, and we didn't do that. The good thing is we cut it to seven with some young kids. I think we had three freshmen in there, one sophomore and one senior with Markisha (Hawkins) in there. We don't have a lot of wiggle room and everybody's got to play. Everyone has to contribute. Which I think that's exciting, I don't think that's a bad thing. I think there is an opportunity for a lot of kids to step up and play. The responsibility you have is to do your job, but Texas was aggressive, they got us in transition, they got us on the glass and when you regress with those, those are the most aggressive things you can do, is go get opportunities in transition and offensive rebounds.
On how difficult it was to guard Texas center Imani McGee-Stafford: It hurt us that Chelsea (Gardner) was in foul trouble because that's our biggest, I think that our little freshman Keyla (Morgan) did a decent job, but such a big part of post defense is ball pressure. You know, we've got girls with hands down, you know where it's coming in over the top two. You have to get that girl's head down and get more disruptive. And we have to be more active with her. We sat behind her. We say "Put Santa Clause as her target" and let her sit in our lap.
On Texas biggest improvement from last year: I think that the pieces that returned have improved. The players that were here last year have added some. I think Krystle Henderson has added some aggressive mentality at the point guard position, and I think they are long and athletic. What they were really good at last year, they are still really good at. I think from a mentality standpoint they are more aggressive.
