The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
22-11
Penn
22-7
Women's Basketball handles Penn, 79-61
03.23.2014 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns rally in the second half to win first NCAA Championship game since 2008.
Box Score (PDF) | Notes | Quotes | Photo Gallery
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) -- Down 15 late in the first half, Texas appeared well on the way to another first-round exit. A program with three Final Fours in its history would bid farewell to a group of seniors with a parting gift of a collection of one-and-dones.
Sensing those upper-classmen were perhaps a bit tight, coach Karen Aston turned to the players she calls the "young pups." She sent Brianna Taylor out to start the second half, and the freshman needed less than a minute to score a big fast-break bucket. Meanwhile, sophomore center Imani McGee-Stafford simply took over, scoring 15 of her 20 points after halftime to lead the fifth-seeded Longhorns past No. 12 Penn 79-61 Sunday.
"They just played free tonight," Aston said. "They played without worrying about a lot of mistakes, and it seemed like the older players were fearful of making mistakes."
It was the Longhorns' first NCAA win since 2008. After failing to make the tournament last year, they've returned to end a skid of four consecutive first-round losses.
"I think it absolutely was a step that this program needed to take, should take," Aston said. "And we're just looking to take some more, but it was a big one."
McGee-Stafford went 8 for 11 from the field, grabbed 12 rebounds and made all four of her free throws. The Longhorns (22-11) went 18 for 18 from the line for the game and shot 61 percent in the second half to set up a second-round meeting Tuesday with fourth-seeded Maryland.
Texas trailed 32-17 late in the first half and 38-31 at halftime, but the stronger, more athletic Longhorns cut down on their turnovers and took advantage of Penn's foul trouble to pull off a 22-2 run early in the second half.
"I don't want to say I freaked out about the score, but it was on my mind," McGee-Stafford said. "I know I only had, like, five points and I hadn't taken that many shots, so that said something about my aggression."
Alyssa Baron scored 25 points to lead the Quakers (23-6), who were trying to become only the second Ivy League team to win a game in the women's tournament. The conference dropped to 1-22 all-time, although the one victory was historic: Harvard over Stanford in 1997, the only time a No. 16 seed has topped a No. 1 in men's or women's tournament history.
Baron's hot hand gave Penn the early lead, but the officials called the game close, and that hurt the Quakers' chances to hold on.
Ivy League rookie of the year and defensive player of the year Sydney Stipanovich played only seven minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, and it's safe to say she did little to get her money's worth on the calls. She picked up her fourth soon after halftime, leaving a void in the middle for McGee-Stafford to lead Texas' comeback.
"I tried to stay straight up, but they're just talented players. They came and drew the fouls. You've got to give them credit for that," said Stipanovich, who then pursed her lips in a way that spoke volumes more than her diplomatic answer.
Both teams admitted Stipanovich's limited playing time changed the game. The niece of former Indiana Pacers center Steve Stipanovich, she finished with 14 points, but most of them came when Penn was trying to make up a double-digit deficit late in the game.
"They getting the lead, and we didn't have Sidney down there to change their shot," Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said. "We had to change some things up on that end. It definitely hurt us. We tried to adjust and it just didn't work our way."
Also, Penn's Kara Bonenberger fouled out with 7:03 to play.
Texas was careless early on, committing turnovers on five consecutive possessions during a 9-0 Penn run. The Longhorns went nearly 10 minutes without a field goal, but they finally regrouped and put together an 8-0 run, including a three-point play by GiGi Mazionyte that drew the third foul on Stipanovich.
Chassidy Fussell gave Texas its first lead since early in the game with a 3-pointer that made it 44-43 with 14½ minutes left, part of a 14-0 run that turned an eight-point deficit into a six-point lead. McGee-Stafford's three-point play with 10:27 remaining put the Longhorns ahead 57-45, and they led by double-digits the rest of the way.
"My teammates needed me to demand the ball in the post," McGee-Stafford said, "so that's what I did for them."
• Series: Sunday marked the first meeting between Texas and Penn.
• NCAA Win, Again: Texas won its first game in the NCAA Championship since March 23, 2008, when the No. 8-seed Longhorns defeated No. 9-seed Minnesota in the first round, 72-55, in Bridgeport, Conn.
• Opening The Dance: UT improves to 17-10 when playing its opening game in an NCAA Championship. Texas is 9-8 in the NCAA Championship round of 64 or 48.
• Free Throw Record: Texas shot a perfect 18-for-18 from the free throw line to set a new program record for free throw percentage in a game (minimum of 10 FT attempts). It is just the second time in program history that Texas recorded a perfect free throw percentage (minimum of 10 FT attempts), joining a 10-for-10 free throw shooting performance at Texas Tech on Feb. 15, 2012. Texas is 12-1 when leading its opponent in free throw percentage.
• Sharp Shooters: Texas shot 51.8 percent from the field (29-56 FG) on Sunday, including a 60.7 FG% mark in the second half. It is the sixth time this season the Longhorns have shot at a .500 clip or better -- UT is 6-0 in those games.
• Winning Ways: Texas has won six of its last seven games, including a 4-1 record in the month of March.
• Trailing at Halftime: Texas won its fifth game of the season when trailing at halftime. The Longhorns trailed the Quakers by seven points during Sunday's intermission, 38-31, and ended with an 18-point final scoring margin, 79-61. UT has also defeated Oklahoma (Jan. 8; -12 halftime deficit/+5 final scoring margin), Iowa State (Feb. 9; -3/+7), TCU (Feb. 25; -7/+12) and Oklahoma (March 8; -6/+10) when trailing at the half.
• In the Paint: Texas outscored Penn in the paint, 36-to-18, and out-rebounded the Quakers, 44-to-28. In the second half, UT out-scored Penn in the paint 24-10. Texas has both out-scored its opponent in the paint and out-rebounded its opponent in 27 of 33 games this season.
• Starters: For the eighth time this season and the third straight contest, Texas started Celina Rodrigo, Chassidy Fussell, Brady Sanders, Nneka Enemkpali and Imani McGee-Stafford. The Longhorns are 4-4 this season with this starting lineup.
• Second-Half Points: For the fifth time this season, Texas scored over 45 points in the second half. UT out-scored Penn in the second half, 48-23. The other four games with 45+ second-half points came against Oklahoma (47; March 8), Texas State (48), Sam Houston State (59) and Idaho (47). Texas shot 60.7 percent from the field (17-28 FG) in the second half.
Imani McGee-Stafford
• Led Texas with 20 points (8-11 FG) and 12 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season and the 19th of her career.
• Added one block and two steals in 23 minutes of play.
Nekia Jones
• Scored 14 points (5-6 FG) with three rebounds in just 13 minutes for her sixth double-figure scoring effort of the season.
• Averages 24.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per 40 minutes.
Empress Davenport
• Scored 10 points (3-6 FG) with two assists in 19 minutes.
• Sunday marked the ninth time Davenport has reached double-figure points this season. Texas is 8-1 when she scores 10 or more points.
Chassidy Fussell
• Scored nine points (3-8 FG) with six rebounds in 29 minutes.
• Finished her third NCAA Championship game with 1,704 career points -- just one point away from moving into 10th on UT's all-time scoring list. Edwina Brown is 10th (1996-2000; 1,705 points) and Stacy Stephens is ninth (2000-04; 1,708 points) on the list.
Head Coach Karen Aston
Opening Statement:
"I think our team is really fortunate to have won the game today. I thought Penn really executed, in particular, in the first half. We were in a little bit of speed mode offensively in the first half. We were going too fast and not really going through the options of our offenses. We had a halftime discussion, which was mostly them deciding they needed to play a little bit better. I thought we regrouped and played a lot better defense. We executed things better offensively. Lastly, I am really proud of our young players. I thought they gave us an enormous lift today in the second half. They had a good week of practice and it reflected in the game today. Our young players were really good."
On halftime defensive adjustments:
"They were running some flex action and we were not doing a really good job of playing it solidly. They were reading and we were anticipating where they were going and they weren't going where we thought they were supposed to go. We got down to more basics in the second half. We played fundamental defense instead of trying to guess where they were going."
"I thought getting Empress (Davenport) back in the game and starting Brianna (Taylor) was major for us because they have the energy and fortitude to guard Alyssa Baron better than we did in the first half. But really, it was a discussion of if we could play a little harder. Either you are going home or you are going to have to do something different. It was simply that conversation."
On if the officiating influenced how she coached the game:
"No. Honestly, when we foul, it is because we are late. It is because we are up the line and not where we are supposed to be. We are flat defensively. We talked about that at halftime. We needed to get in better position and in the right place defensively. We needed to play a little more fundamentally sound and get a little more pressure on the ball. The calling was fairly consistent."
On the importance of the win:
"It's huge. Everything that we set forth to do this year, we have checked off. One of those was obviously to make it to the tournament and we accomplished that. The next one was to win a game and that was a step I feel like this program needed to take and we're just looking to take some more. I'm proud of the team."
Sophomore C, Imani McGee-Stafford
On her second half:
"I don't think I took anything on my shoulders because it was a team effort. I don't want to say I freaked out about the score, but it was in my mind. I know I only had like five points at halftime and I hadn't taken many shots so that was something about my aggression. I just wanted to come out and give my team what they deserved from me."
On Sydney Stipanovich's foul trouble:
"She is a very good player, especially for how young she is. She is not my phased by my length when she is shooting. It was a very big difference when she came back into the game. She got a lot of shots and she finished a lot of them. She kind of sparked a little run for them."
On if she wanted to be the person to take the game over in the second half:
"I don't want to say I wanted to be the person because I don't think we can have a superhero on this team. By evidence of our one hundred percent free throw percentage, everyone has to show up. Everyone has to do what they need to do to win. My teammates needed me to demand the ball in the post so that is what I did."
On Texas' free throw shooting:
"Anytime you go 100% from the free throw line is great. It really helped us because every time they fouled us, we capitalized. The foul count was even and we took advantage of them putting us on the line."
Sophomore G, Empress Davenport
On her three consecutive baskets in the second half:
"In the first half Penn sped us up a lot. We were just rushing on offense. We didn't really calm ourselves down. At halftime, coach told us to get out in transition and look for open baskets. When I saw an opening in transition, I just took what my point guards gave me."
On Alyssa Baron:
"Coach told us all week that [Alyssa Baron] was a good player and obviously she showed that today. In the first half, we didn't take her seriously so at halftime we had our meeting as a team and we said that someone needed to step up and limit her baskets and we did that as a team."
On who spoke up at halftime:
"Collectively as a team, everyone speaks up. Everyone has something to say whether you're on the court or on the bench. If you're on the bench, you see what the players on the court can't see and vice versa. Everyone spoke up, it wasn't just one individual player."
