The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
2-0
Northwestern State
1-2
No. 11/8 Women’s Basketball rolls past Northwestern State, 86-33
11.18.2015 | Women's Basketball
Imani Boyette scores 25 points and adds 14 rebounds.
Box Score (PDF) | Postgame Notes | Postgame Quotes | Photo Gallery
AUSTIN, Texas – On Wednesday morning at the Frank Erwin Center in front of a crowd of 7,582 fans and elementary school students in attendance as part of the annual "40 Acres Field Trip," No. 11/8 Texas (2-0) utilized runs of both 26-0 and 19-1 in powering past Northwestern State (1-2), 86-33.
The win marked Longhorns head coach Karen Aston's 60th win in charge of the program, while senior center Imani Boyette's team-leading 25 points got the Los Angeles, Calif., native within eight tallies (992) of becoming the 38th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. Boyette also managed her 29th career double-double in the match-up by grabbing 14 of UT's 47 total rebounds.
Sophomore guard Brooke McCarty and junior guard Brianna Taylor joined Boyette as part of a Texas trio in double figures with 15 and 11 points, respectively.
The Horns shot 52.2% for the game (35-for-67), marking the team's best shooting efficiency since Dec. 3, 2014, against New Mexico (52.5%), hit seven threes and managed a commanding 47-18 advantage on the boards in rolling past the Demons. UT also out-scored NWSU by a staggering 27-1 total during the second quarter to take firm control of the contest.
"I thought that the crowd energized us from the very get-go." Texas head coach Karen Aston said. "It's always fun to play in this game. We've been fortunate enough to have this all the time that we've been here. It's growing and becoming more and more fun to play in. So, I would first of all thank everyone who had a part in this. It's a special game, most of all, for our player involvement with the community but also lots of fun to play in.
"I thought Imani was terrific today, and she'll probably sit here and say that she should be because of their size, but I did think that she imposed her will today and was very solid and has been since we've been playing. I thought our bench was really good. At one point in the first half we kind of got a little lackadaisical defensively, and I subbed, and Bri was one of those. Tasia (Foman) gave us good minutes off the bench, and I thought that Jordan (Hosey) was good. So we have the ability right now to bring in some different combinations, and I think give some people some confusing looks offensively. All in all, a good win. We're obviously working on ourselves right now in a lot of areas, and I'm pleased with where our team is today."
Texas wasted little time jumping out to an early lead, using a game-opening run powered by Boyette (four points) and senior guard Empress Davenport to nab a quick 6-0 lead.
Northwestern State battled hard to cut the deficit to 17-11 on a three-pointer by Beatrice Attura with 1:08 left in the stanza.
That was close as the Demons would get the rest of the way, however, as lay-ups from McCarty and freshman guard Lashann Higgs as well as a Celina Rodrigo three-pointer extended UT's advantage to 22-11 at the conclusion of the opening 10 minutes.
Five consecutive points from Boyette, jumpers by both sophomore guard Tasia Foman and freshman forward Jordan Hosey and a McCarty triple to christen the second quarter continued what eventually evolved into an staggering 26-0 Longhorns run stretching over 7:37 of game time as Texas nabbed a 43-11 lead with 3:17 remaining in the first half. Northwestern State finally brought an end to the Longhorn run with a single made Attura free throw.
Buckets from McCarty and Taylor and a pair of Rodrigo free tosses finalized a dominant 27-1 second quarter effort as the Horns took a commanding 49-12 advantage to the halftime locker room.
Northwestern State seemed inspired out of the break, scoring the first eight points on two Attura threes and a pair of free throws and utilizing a 12-2 run to cut its deficit to 27 with 7:11 left in the third.
Again, the Longhorns would again answer with a 9-1 spurt of their own as another Boyette bucket, two free throws from both Rodrigo and Higgs as well as a McCarty lay-up and triple, boosted the UT lead to a game-high 37 points at 62-25.
The run would eventually reach 19-1, stretching over a span of 6:25 of the third quarter, as Texas took a 70-27 advantage to the fourth stanza.
From there, the Longhorns worked to finish off the dominant victory with Boyette adding six more points to help Texas out score the Demons over the final 10 minutes, 16-6.
The Longhorns will return to action on Sat., Nov. 21, by venturing out on the road for the first time this season with a visit to Houston, Texas, to battle Rice at 2 p.m. CT.
