The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
16-7, 7-4
Iowa State *
16-7, 5-7
Women's Basketball surges past No. rv/23 Iowa State, 71-64
02.09.2014 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns rally to improve to 6-0 in Big 12 home games following their 10th consecutive win at the Erwin Center.
Box Score (PDF) | Notes | Quotes | Photo Gallery
AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Women's Basketball defeated No. rv/23 Iowa State on Sunday afternoon, 71-64, to improve to 12-1 at the Erwin Center this season, including a 5-0 mark in home Big 12 games. The Longhorns trailed by eight points with seven minutes remaining and finished the game on a 14-to-3 run.
Texas (16-7, 7-4) featured three players with double-digit points, led by junior Nneka Enemkpali's 12 points. Sophomore Brady Sanders scored 10 points, seven of those in the second half, while matching her season high in rebounds with seven, while sophomore Empress Davenport chipped in 10 points.
Iowa State (16-7, 5-7) started the game off with an early 19-10 lead. After the media timeout at the 10:40 mark, Texas went on a 12-3 run to tie the game 22-all. The Longhorns shot 10-of-16 in the final 10:40 of the first half (62.5 percent) after making just four field goals in the first 10 minutes. Despite outscoring the Cyclones 16-4 in the paint, the Longhorns trailed Iowa State 36-33 at the half.
Texas went on a 9-2 run to start the second half, fueled by seven points from senior GiGi Mazionyte, to cut Iowa State's lead to one. Iowa State was able to build their lead to eight at the 7:09 mark, but Texas went on a 14-5 run over the next 4:14, capped off by Sanders' three-pointer to gain their first lead of the afternoon at the 2:55 mark.
The Longhorns never trailed for the remainder of the game, finishing on a 14-3 run to defeat the Cyclones.
Nikki Moody led Iowa State with 19 points and seven rebounds, converting 5-of-10 3-pointers.
Texas travels to Manhattan, Kan. to face Kansas State on Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. Tipoff is for 7 p.m. Central and will be televised on Fox Sports Midwest.
TEAM NOTES
• Series: Wednesday's game marked the 25th meeting between Texas and Iowa State.
• Starters: For the fourth time this season and the second straight contest, Rodrigo, Fussell, Sanders, Enemkpali and Lang have started for the Longhorns. Texas is 4-0 with this lineup.
• In the first half, Texas and Iowa State combined for 32 3-point attempts. This is the highest number of 3-pointers attempted in a single half in a Texas game this season.
• Texas' bench outscored Iowa State's 32-to-3, and the Longhorns outscored the Cyclones 32-to-12 in the paint.
• Texas out-rebounded the Cyclones 43-29. The Longhorns have out-rebounded 20 of 23 opponents this season by an average of 13.1 rebounds per contest.
• With the win, Texas improves to 12-1 at home, and 8-3 versus Iowa State in the Erwin Center.
• Texas went 13-of-15 from the free throw line, giving the Longhorns their best free throw percentage in a game this season (86.6 percent).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Brady Sanders
• Scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds, which tied for the team high. Also had a team-high three assists.
• Has scored in double-figures the past five games and is averaging 11.4 points over that span.
• Hit a 3-pointer at the 2:55 mark of the second half to give Texas their first lead of the game, 62-61.
Nneka Enemkpali
• Scored a team-high 12 points on 3-of-5 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds, which tied for the team high.
Empress Davenport
• Reached double-figures (10 points) for the second straight game.
• Was a perfect 2-for-2 from beyond the arc.
Imani McGee-Stafford
• Scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds to go along with a team-high two blocks in 11 minutes of play.
Head Coach Karen Aston
Opening Statement: First of all, really fun weekend for our players and the alumni. It was alumni weekend and yesterday was a terrific day with our Exes. Loads of fun with them, and a great opportunity for our players to be surrounded by a tradition. That's what this program has been built on. A fun weekend capped off by a tremendous performance, to me, in the second half. It was not one of our best games and definitely not, in the first half, one of our best efforts. Really proud of our resilience and our ability to dig quite deep, I thought, with about six or seven minutes left in the game. I thought these two [sophomore guard Brady Sanders and sophomore guard Empress Davenport] not only hit big shots but also gave us a real life from an emotional standpoint. I thought they got us going from a communication standpoint, especially Brady. That's her role and she took it personally in the second half. I thought Empress was a difference for us on [Iowa State guard] Jadda Buckley, who really hurt us in the first half. Again, a unique game for us because we weren't able to really do some of the stuff that we traditional thing that we normally do. We had to change lineups and had to go with a lineup that was smaller and a little bit better defensively so proud of them for making the adjustment.
On importance of winning a close game: Really big for this team because that's been the difficult part for us – when things start going wrong or we really can get going, how do we grow up and get going. That's what has been hard for us and obviously a little bit more difficult on the road. That was huge for us to be able to really get over the hump, and we really just couldn't get things to go our way. Every time we thought we were in a good position or about to make a run, they would get a basket or we would foul. We just couldn't get over the hump. I thought they really stayed focused down the stretch. All of the possessions were huge and it helped down the stretch to get Nneka Enemkpali back in the game. I will say GiGi Mazionyte was huge for us today.
On role of Brady Sanders: It's evolving, clearly. There is not a ceiling right now for her role. Her role today is that, I think, she is a stabilizing force on our team. I say thisa lot and I truly mean it, that you really appreciate when the players that come to play every game and they don't have a lot going on. They don't have drama or problems. They just come and bring their lunch pail and go to work and that translates to getting better as a basketball player. I think that's what she brings to the table for our team. We don't expect it from her but what she brings is a calmness and stability.
Texas players
Guard Brady Sanders
On the key to getting the win in the second half: I think the regroup at halftime. We knew our mistakes that we made in the first half, especially on the defensive end with communication. I think we did a good job with every timeout, and regrouping at the free throw line. We are always saying communication is the key, and I think we fixed our mistakes in the second half, and it was a good team win.
On everyone performing their role: I think everyone definitely stepped up the second half with their role. The posts did a good job of kicking it out and finishing inside, especially in the first half. Then Iowa State changed the way that they played, and so the post wasn't really going in the second half. So I think the guards did a great job with crashing and knocking down open shots and bringing energy.
Guard Empress Davenport
On her layup in the final minutes of the game: I didn't think it would be that wide open. At the end of the day, I read the defense and got a bucket for my teammates, and that's what we needed.
On what this win means: I think this win was pretty huge for us. We are still undefeated in conference on our home court and I think we should keep it like that.
Iowa State Head Coach Bill Fennelly
Opening Statement: I thought our kids played really hard. That's a very good team. They have a lot of length and a lot of depth. We competed for 40 minutes and did the best we could. We had a couple of breakdowns defensively, and our trouble all year has been missing some open shots and great chances to keep a lead and stay in the game, but they had some big ones. That's a very, very good team. I thought we did everything we could to hang around and they just certainly made some big plays down the stretch.
On what attributed to the lead they had all game: Texas made some good plays. We had a couple of breakdowns defensively, and they got to the rim on us a couple of times. Then we had a couple of times where we had some good looks and hesitated a little bit, but you know whenever a game swings, and we knew rebounding would be a chore for us. We don't play a lot of zone, but we thought we had to play some zone. We played more than usual just to try to keep people in front of us and try to protect some people out of foul trouble. That's a team that can do a lot of things too. They hit some quality shots off the bench, probably we got a little worn down. Mickey got her fourth foul and that really hurt; she was playing great. We had to pull her out of the game for a few minutes. We always talk as coaches that one possession here or there changes games and they made the plays that we didn't make.
On their three-pointer game: We wanted to spread them out and we shoot the three a lot. We thought that we could dribble, drive and maybe kick it. They are so long and athletic, and we had a hard time getting shots around the rim against them. Sometimes it's a futile effort to just keep taking them all into a shot-blocker. That's the shot that was , and I thought we had good looks at a lot of them. Unfortunately it's kind of been what our team has struggled with lately, we just haven't shot the ball great. We shot the ball at times, but not as a group.
