The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
17-8, 8-5
Baylor *
22-3, 12-1
Women's Basketball drops first Big 12 home game to No. 7/4 Baylor, 72-56
02.16.2014 | Women's Basketball
Junior Nneka Enemkpali led the Longhorns with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Box Score (PDF) | Notes | Quotes | Photo Gallery
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Texas Women's Basketball lost to No. 7/4 Baylor on Sunday afternoon, 72-56, for its first home conference loss of the season. The Longhorns could not overcome 26 turnovers and a 13-for-26 performance from the free throw line.
Junior Nneka Enemkpaliled led Texas (17-8, 8-5) with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting and hauled in a game-high nine rebounds.
In the first half, there were two lead changes and three ties in the first 5:12 until Baylor went on a 12-5 over the next 8:25 to earn their largest lead of the half at nine points, 24-16. Texas answered with a 5-0 run of their own to cut Baylor's lead to three at the 2:40 mark, but six straight Baylor points gave the Lady Bears the nine point lead, 30-21, heading into halftime. Texas' defense held Sims to 3-of-15 shooting in the first half for 12 points.
Baylor's Sims converted a three-point play to start the second half. Texas answered with a basket by freshman Kelsey Lang, but the Longhorns wouldn't get another for nearly 10 minutes. Texas shot just 1-of-11 during the first 11 minutes of the second half, but finished the game shooting 10-13, fueled by nine points from freshman Nekia Jones. Jones scored eight of her nine points in the last seven minutes of the second half.
Texas out-rebounded the Lady Bears 42-40. Entering Sunday's game, Baylor led the Big 12 rebounding (49.2 rpg) and Texas (44.5 rpg) ranked second.
Sims led Baylor with 34 points on 11-of-28 shooting.
Texas is back in action on Wednesday as they travel to Norman, Okla. to face Oklahoma. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. Central and will be televised on Fox Sports Net.
TEAM NOTES
• Series: Sunday's game marked the 86th meeting between Texas and Baylor. Texas leads the series, 57-29. Baylor has won the last eight meetings.
• Starters: Celina Rodrigo, Chassidy Fussell, Brady Sanders, Nneka Enemkpali and Kelsey Lang started for the sixth time this season, including the fourth consecutive contest. Sunday marked the first loss of the season with this starting lineup (5-1).
• Texas limited Baylor to 30 first half points, which is the fewest points the Lady Bears have scored in a half since scoring 28 in the second half at Oklahoma State on Jan. 26, 2014.
• Texas out-rebounded Baylor 42-to-40. This is the fifth time this season that Texas has out-rebounded their opponent in a contest which resulted in a loss.
• Texas started the second half shooting 1-of-11 (9.1 percent) over the first 11:09, but finished the second half shooting 10-of-13 (76.9 percent).
• Texas committed 26 turnovers in the contest which was the most since Texas lost to West Virginia on Jan. 12, 2014.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Nneka Enemkpali
• Scored 10 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
• Has led or co-led Texas in rebounding nine of the last 10 games.
Nekia Jones
• Scored nine points (3-6 FG, 2-3 3FG), all in the second half.
• Also grabbed six rebounds in a season-high 17 minutes of play.
Kelsey Lang
• Scored eight points (3-5 FG), including her first career 3-pointer.
• Also grabbed five rebounds in 15 minutes of play.
Celina Rodrigo
• Dished out a game-high five assists and scored five points in 18 minutes of play.
• 10th game with five or more assists this season.
Texas Quotes
Head Coach Karen Aston
Opening Statement: It was a tough day for us. I thought we were uncharacteristically frantic offensively. I say that in the sense that I thought we had gotten past that. We looked a little bit like we did early in the year. We were frantic and careless with the ball, trying to hurry up rather than being patient with the ball. Give credit to Baylor that they force you to hurry and be a little bit frantic from their defense. I thought we played hard, and that our defense was better than it was in Waco. We did some things that we have worked on much better than we did in Waco. Missed free throws and some missed easy buckets really bit us when we could have stayed in the game.
On the unexpected frantic play offensively: It snuck up on us a little bit because we had not been playing like that. We had been cohesive offensively. However, the last couple games we have been lackadaisical with less attention to detail, which may have bit us because the pace and stakes were higher than what I'm sure everyone thought. Maybe our habits from the past couple weeks finally caught up to us.
On the cause of turnovers: Turnovers hurt us really bad, and they came from trying to make home run plays. We wanted to hurry up, and down there to score, and we weren't exactly taking what the defense gave us or reversing the ball. There were times that things looked open, but they weren't because they were in the correct position defensively. We needed to make one or two more passes. That's something I have been talking about a lot in practice because we've been getting away with it at times, but we didn't today.
Junior Nneka Enemkpali
Describing this loss: I would describe it as a tough loss. It was uncharacteristic of our team to play like we did today. I didn't feel like we played with enough fight. We were frantic and didn't reverse the ball enough. I feel like we hurt ourselves in this game.
On possibly being too exciting about playing Baylor: I think we go into every game excited, and we don't like to take plays off. We knew that Baylor was going to do what they do being a prestigious program, but we went into this game wanting to play together doing what we do best, but it didn't turn out that way.
On the bad start of the second half: They just came out hungrier. Coach ended up calling a timeout and told us that they taste blood, and are going for it, and we were unable to react what they were doing to us at that moment.
Freshman Nekia Jones
On Baylor's strong defense in the paint: The fact we weren't making some of the shots that we took in the inside has to come into consideration. Our execution wasn't very good. They played well, but we had an advantage inside, and our shots weren't going in.
On playing hard through the whole game: Our team is competitive. We don't like to go down losing in any game. I know that when coach puts me in, she's confident in me just like I am in myself. Any player that is called on for this team has to be ready.
Baylor Quotes
Head Coach Kim Mulkey
On second half turnaround: I think [senior guard] Odyssey [Sims] started hitting some shots and we started getting transition baskets. We missed so many in the first half that were good shots for us. We weren't taking bad shots; those were high percentage shots. We just shot the ball poorly, and we still had a nine point lead. We used that as a positive when we came out in the second half. I thought our defense in the first half, when you can hold somebody to 21 points, that's pretty special. I thought our defense was better than our offense in the first half.
On Texas post play: I want to repeat what I said when the season started: Those are the best post players in the league. So that in itself challenges you as a coach to make sure you defend them as best as you can. I just think we are undersized in there, and we have to battle and we have to take angles defensively. We have to know when to front and when to play behind. That's what kept us in the game in the first half. We held [Texas] to 21 points. I think our post players are so unselfish that they understand that their defense and rebounding come before anything they do offensively.
Senior guard Odyssey Sims
On shooting struggles: I had good looks and just wasn't making my shots. It goes to me just having to concentrate more on the floor. I'm usually not that wide open coming off screens, so it's just a mentality thing.
On team defense: We always try to make teams turn the ball over as much as we can. I think we are good on defense and our defensive pressure on the wings and on the ball and in the post. We play good team defense so we try to force them to turn the ball over.
Sophomore guard Niya Johnson
On being aggressive on offense: It's a process. I just have to continue to shoot the ball with confidence each day and it'll fall.
On team defense: We try to pressure the ball so it'll be hard to get it into the post. Once they get it in the post, coach told us to just cover down.
