The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
15-4, 4-4
Oklahoma *
13-6, 7-1
No. 14/13 Women’s Basketball defeats No. 24/rv Oklahoma in double OT, 84-81
01.29.2015 | Women's Basketball
UT’s double-overtime victory over Oklahoma marks Head Coach Karen Aston’s 150th career win.
Box Score (PDF) | Notes | Quotes
AUSTIN, Texas – Freshman guard Ariel Atkins scored 21 points to lead No. 14/13 Texas Women's Basketball to a double-overtime win over No. 24/rv Oklahoma, 84-81, on Thursday night at the Frank Erwin Center.
The win marks Head Coach Karen Aston's 150th career victory.
Texas (15-4, 4-4) had five double-digit scorers in the contest, led Atkins' game-high 21 points, her highest total of the season. Junior center Imani McGee-Stafford recorded her first double-double of the season with season highs of 15 points and 11 rebounds in 29 minutes of action. Juniors Brady Sanders and Empress Davenport each scored 13 points in the contest while sophomore Kelsey Lang added 10 points and seven rebounds.
The Longhorns had a 17-to-8 assist advantage in the game, led by freshman Brooke McCarty's season-high eight assists. McCarty added five points and six rebounds in playing all 50 minutes of the game.
Oklahoma (13-6, 7-1) was led by 16 points by redshirt sophomore Peyton Little and sophomore Gioya Carter.
The game was close throughout the contest with 14 lead changes and 13 ties.
Texas trailed for the majority of the first half but was able to keep the Sooners close and stay in the game. The largest lead of the contest was nine when Oklahoma led with 1:33 left in the first half. The Longhorns finished the half on a 6-0 run including back-to-back layups from Davenport to head to the locker room down three, 33-30.
The teams traded baskets throughout the second half until the Longhorns were able to take the lead at the 5:30 mark on two free throws by Davenport. Atkins scored an old-fashioned three-point play with a minute later to take a three-point lead. After the Sooners battled back to take the lead, the rest of regulation featured a back-and-forth of one-point leads until the teams' ended regulation at 65-65.
The Longhorns never trailed in the first overtime session and led by as many as four. Atkins scored six of her 21 points in the first OT.
The second overtime was tied at the 1:40 mark until Lang made a jumper to give Texas the go-ahead lead.
UT's victory on Thursday marked the first double-overtime game since defeating Kansas, 85-82, on Feb. 13, 2010 in Lawrence.
Texas returns to action to face TCU in Fort Worth on Sunday (12 p.m. Central, FOX Sports Southwest Plus).
• SERIES: Thursday's double overtime win marked the 49th meeting between Texas and Oklahoma. Texas holds a 26-23 all-time lead over the Sooners, including a 4-0 record in overtime games. The Longhorns and Sooners split this season's rivalry, 1-1.
• STARTERS: Brady Sanders, Brooke McCarty, Ariel Atkins, Imani McGee-Stafford and Kelsey Lang started from the Longhorns on Thursday night. This is the first time the two centers, sophomore Kelsey Lang and junior Imani McGee-Stafford, have started together.
• ASTON REACHES 150 WINS: Thursday's win marks Head Coach Karen Aston's 150th career win. Aston is in her eighth season as a head coach with a 150-97 career record.
• ALL ABOUT OT: Thursday's battle marks the second consecutive overtime game between Texas and Oklahoma when playing in Austin. The last time Texas went into double overtime was an 85-82 victory at Kansas on Feb. 13, 2010. Texas is 4-0 against OU in overtime games.
• KEY RUN: From the 8:49 to the 4:44 mark of the second half, Texas went on a 14-4 run. A free throw by Empress Davenport gave the Longhorns their first lead since the 12:11 mark of the first half.
• HOME COURT ADVANTAGE: Texas is 12-1 at home this season and 25-2 at the Frank Erwin Center since last season.
• POUNDING THE PAINT: Texas produced almost half of its points (47.6 percent) tonight from the paint, out-scoring Oklahoma 40-34.
• DOUBLE TROUBLE: Imani McGee-Stafford registers her first double-double with 11 rebounds and 15 points. All other double-double's scored this season were collected by senior Nneka Enemkpali.
• ATKINS LEADS: Freshman Ariel Atkins notched a career-high 21 points (7-17 FG, 7-8 FT) with one rebound and one steal. Her previous career-high was 16, which she set at Stanford. This was her first time starting with fellow freshman Brooke McCarty.
Head Coach Karen Aston
Opening Statement: I'm just really proud of our basketball team. Obviously, we've been through some adversity the last couple of weeks. I really thought one of the biggest parts of the game was when we got down in the first half and we didn't let them get away from us. We were able to re-group and a lot of players made a lot of plays. We had some key plays by Brady [Sanders], some key plays by Empress [Davenport], and then I thought everybody came into the game and contributed something. I've said it all along from the very beginning, this team has to be about that. This was by far one of our best wins and team performances of the year.
On how significant was to get the win in double overtime: I think it definitely could give them some confidence. I never thought that this team thought that they were physically capable, but I think from a mental standpoint a lot of people made plays, they didn't get down on themselves, and fought through some adversity. Any time you do that, it gives you confidence.
On the opportunity to have both Imani McGee-Stafford and Kelsey Lang on the court at the same time: There have been some games where it was very difficult from a matchup perspective to play Imani and Kelsey together. But I knew this was coming because of the way she's [Imani] practicing, you could tell that she was getting her timing back, and her game condition back, so I knew that this was coming. I'm not expecting miracles because I still said that it was mid-February before I thought we would see the Imani that we all know, but when she is in there, she allows Kelsey to do what Kelsey is comfortable doing. With the injuries we've had, some players have been thrown into roles that they may not be comfortable with. I think all these people back in the fold makes them feel better about themselves and they make other people feel better about themselves. You can call it a Domino effect.
On if her preferred lineup is going to be determined game by game: It's matchups. That's what this league is all about. People will try to expose you from a matchup perspective. We did have to go small in the second half for the same reason, because they had gone small. We'll play TCU on Sunday and they play five guards. I expected to play zone tonight, but I never pulled the trigger on it. You might see it on Sunday because we do need to figure out a way to put the people that can put the ball in the basket. Those are the people that need to be getting the minutes right now.
Imani McGee-Stafford (Junior, C)
On how bad did the team needed a win like this: I think we needed this game obviously because of who were we playing. Really regardless of who we were playing, we needed to win, it just helped that it was Oklahoma. We remember freshman year, we remember how losses came and we spun out of control so we needed to get a win. We needed to get our confidence back up.
Ariel Atkins (Freshman, G)
On playing in double overtime: We needed to not give up and to keep pushing. If you noticed, after everything that happened, we kind of held it together and that was our way of bringing each other back into the focus, not being in ourselves, but focusing on the team goal.
OKLAHOMA
Head Coach Sherri Coale
On the difference during the second overtime: I'm not really sure. The second overtime is a bit of a blur to me right now. I liked the way we jumped out to a lead, and maybe we should've let them score first. We had a little more success with that it seems like.
On adjustments made during the second half: I think we missed some good looks. I didn't think our offensive timing was very good. I thought that was an issue for us all night. We didn't have very good rhythm, and that's been our strength, our cadence and our ball movement. We just got stuck all night long on one side or one spot on the floor, and that affects shooting.
On differences in preparation with Nneka Enemkpali's absence: Well, Ariel Atkins played tonight and took that space that Nneka had occupied. I thought Ariel was the difference in the game. Her mid-range shot is really tough to defend, and we let her get comfortable and get going. She created a lot off the bounce for other people. They're such different players. I don't really know that I've answered your question, they're such different players. We still had to be concerned about Texas' interior game because we give up so much size to Imani (McGee-Stafford) and to Kelsey (Lang). We still had to be concerned about that. That part wasn't different.
On Texas looking like a different team with Imani at full strength: They've been so many different teams over the course of the year just because they've had different guys in and out of the line-ups. I don't really know how to answer that question. They're so different now than they were when we played them the first time.
