The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
19-8, 8-8
Oklahoma State *
18-9, 8-8
No. rv/24 Women’s Basketball stifles Oklahoma State, 59-42
02.25.2015 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns hold Oklahoma State to a season-low 42 points on 28.6 percent shooting.
Box Score | Notes | Quotes | Photo Gallery
AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Women's Basketball held Oklahoma State to a season-low 42 points in a 59-42 victory on Wednesday night at the Frank Erwin Center.
Texas (19-8, 8-8 Big 12) held Oklahoma State (18-9, 8-8) to 28.6 percent shooting from the field, blocked nine shots, and out-gained OSU in the paint, 32-16.
Junior center Imani McGee-Stafford led the Longhorns' defensive wall with 11 rebounds and five blocks.
The contest marks the lowest point total from a Big 12 opponent of UT's since defeating Missouri, 60-41, on March 3, 2010. The Longhorns have now held eight opponents under 50 points this season.
On the offensive side, three Longhorns registered double-figure points. Junior guard Empress Davenport came off the bench to tie her career high of 15 points in 28 minutes. Freshman guard Ariel Atkins finished with 12 points and three rebounds in 28 minutes, while sophomore center Kelsey Lang registered 11 points with nine rebounds in 26 minutes.
Off the tip, Atkins and Lang combined for five quick points to give the Horns an early advantage, but OSU answered on its own 5-0 run to tie. The teams went back-and-forth in the first half, which featured three ties and six lead changes. Texas took a one-point lead into the locker room at halftime on a last-second layup from Davenport.
The Longhorns held the Cowgirls to just 23 first-half points on 27.8 percent shooting.
Texas pulled away on a go-ahead 3-pointer from Atkins at 15:14 mark of the second half. UT clamped down on defense in the second stanza, holding OSU to 19 second-half points.
Brittney Martin led Oklahoma State with 23 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
Texas travels to Morgantown, W.Va., on Sunday to play its final Big 12 road game of the season against West Virginia (12 p.m. Central, ESPN2).
• Texas is on a four-game winning streak, its first winning streak since starting the season 13-0.
• Texas improves to 14-2 at home this season.
• The Longhorns lead the all-time series with OSU, 27-15, including a 16-4 mark in Austin. Texas and OSU split the season series for the second consecutive year.
• Oklahoma's 19 second-half points marks the second time UT has held a Big 12 opponent to under 20 points in a half. First was against Texas Tech's 17 first-half points on Jan. 17.
• Texas forced 12 OSU turnovers and scored 22 points off turnovers.
• The Longhorn bench out-scored the OSU bench, 22-0. The last time Texas shutout an opponent's bench scoring was at K-State on Feb. 4 this season (4-0).
• Despite the win, Wednesday marks just the second time Texas has been out-rebounded this season. The Cowgirls held a 43-to-39 advantage on the boards.
Head Coach Karen Aston
Opening Statement: Obviously a much better performance by this team—I would start with the way we played defense. Dramatically different than the first time we played them just from a focus standpoint. On the offensive end I do think that we're executing much better. I think we're seeing extra passes and I thought in the second half our five players got involved in the game and that was probably the difference. These two right here, specifically Empress [Davenport], helped us relax in the first half with her penetration and her aggressiveness. In the second half I thought our post players got involved in the game and it helped dramatically, but it was a really good win for us. Every win right now in the Big 12 is a good win and I feel good about the way our team is playing right now.
On Empress coming off the bench: I don't know that there's strategy to it. Obviously she was hurt for a while and really I think is still sometimes not a 100 percent, but I appreciate the effort that she puts forward because I think she excepts whatever it is we throw at her. It's really refreshing to be able to bring Imani [Mcgee-Stafford] and Empress [Davenport] off the bench. In the last two games our bench production has been the difference in the games so them coming in and us not losing anything, in fact gaining, with them coming off the bench has been a positive thing for us.
On Imani' McGee-Stafford's impact on the game: She was the difference especially in the second half; she and Kelsey really picked it up a lot. I thought there were a couple things that were different defensively then the way that we played them up there. I played a big line up there and that was not a good idea on my part and we changed that. I thought Brianna [Taylor], Empress [Davenport], Ariel [Atkins], Brady [Sanders], and all the big guards really did a good job of neutralizing [OSU F Liz] Donohoe who I think has been playing really well for them. We picked it up a little bit better against Brittney Martin in the second half, although 23 and 16 is a pretty good night.
On the jam in the conference: It's a big logjam. It's a competitive league, there's not a night off at all and I think someone told me Oklahoma beat Baylor tonight so I don't think there's a night off in our league and every time I get a chance to say how good I think our league is I will say it because we know each other so well. Maybe it's the fact that there are only 10 of us and everybody plays each other twice. There's just so much familiarity that it's hard to execute everything perfectly, that's why you're seeing the scores go down in the second half of the league play. I think we have really good coaches that prepare us. It's hard to get things done and you just have to grind it out in this league.
PLAYERS
Empress Davenport (Junior, G)
On what changes the team has made: Coach has been emphasizing playing defense and during our losses, we really lacked defense and somewhat rebounding. We have been getting back to playing defense like a team and not leaving people to guard one person by themselves— just helping everybody out. It really helps us to come back as a team and have that cohesiveness.
On seeing Imani-McGee Stafford play well: It definitely gets me live, but that's just a given, that's what Imani does. If a player gets beat of the dribble we just have to rely on our help and Imani does a good job at that.
Ariel Atkins (Freshman, G)
On defense: Our high school coach really emphasized it and coming here Coach Aston also really emphasized it. It was a really good transition to come in and just really focus on playing defense.
Head Coach Jim Littell
Opening Statement: I thought they played extremely hard. They did a great job on the defense end. It seemed like we were in a hurry, a frantic pace from the beginning of the game to the end of the game. Brittney Martin played well with 23 points and 16 rebounds. The rest of the team went 8-4-42 and those figures aren't conducive to getting wins. We have some people that we count on—our bench is not deep. Our starters have to play well and we had one person play tonight. You are not going to beat a team with the caliber Texas has if you only have one person contributing. I thought Empress Davenport was very good tonight. Ariel Atkins is one of the top three players in the country and they both made plays. Their post players posted up hard and got the ball deep. Our post players hid tonight and that can't happen so we put ourselves in a very difficult situation. With two games left, we have to regroup and get ready to play Texas Tech this weekend. There is a logjam here at 8-8. A lot of teams control their own destiny and we have to regroup and try to play better than we did tonight. We were on a pretty good role won five in a row and six out of the last seven. We reverted back to some things that we were doing in the first eight games of the year.
On if Imani McGee-Stafford was critical with the five blocks and eleven boards:
I don't think there is any question. It wasn't only the five blocks, but you look at the shots that she altered. Other than that she may not have blocked it, but we had to shoot high arches and change our shot. It was more than just the five blocks. She was a big affect and altered a lot of shots in the paint.
On did the two large posts play a part in the strategy: We knew that they had two big post players and that they do a good job of walling up inside and making it difficult to score inside. We played at a too hurried of pace and I think if you are fading on McGee- Stafford and Lang you are playing into their hands. You've got to take it to them and try to get them in foul trouble, and we didn't do that all night long. So, they were a huge factor in the game.
