The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
23-10
WKU
30-5
Women’s Basketball outlasts WKU in NCAA First Round, 66-64
03.20.2015 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns recover from an eight-point deficit in the second half to advance in NCAA postseason play.
BERKELEY, Calif. -- Junior center Imani McGee-Stafford registered her third consecutive double-double to guide No. 5 seed Texas past No. 12 seed WKU, 66-64, in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship First Round on Friday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.
McGee-Stafford scored 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting with 15 rebounds in 30 minutes of action as the the Longhorns outscored the Lady Toppers 48-16 in the paint and held a +21 rebounding margin.
Texas (23-10) advances to the second round of NCAA postseason play for the second consecutive season.
Freshman guard Brooke McCarty kept the Longhorns alive late in the game with 10 second-half points, including the two go-ahead free throws that secured UT's 66-64 win. Although McCarty didn't start for the first time since January, her spark and sense of urgency at the point guard position helped Texas limit its turnovers and take advantage of fast break points in her 25 minutes of action off the bench.
Junior guard Brady Sanders added nine points, five rebounds and five assists, marking her eighth game this season with five or more assists.
Texas came out with an early 10-9 lead on six McGee-Stafford points, but as the clock hit the 16-minute mark, neither team scored again for almost six minutes.
Late in the first half, Texas committed four back-to-back turnovers that forced a Longhorn timeout, and the Lady Toppers took advantage going on a 6-0 run that gave them the lead with 3:35 left in the first. A three-pointer from Sanders ended a late UT scoring drought before going in to the locker room with a tied score, 25-25.
Gooch's hot hand gave WKU an early six-point lead which was sustained through the most of the second half, maxing out at a 39-31 WKU advantage. Texas went on a 10-2 run to tie the game, but the Lady Toppers answered and pushed their lead to seven.
In the final four minutes of regulation, the game was tied on three different occasions as each team traded baskets to try to sustain the lead. As 20 seconds remained, a WKU foul allowed McCarty to sink the go-ahead free throws that secured Texas' win, 66-64.
Chastity Gooch scored 25 points to lead the Lady Toppers (30-5), who were trying to move forward in the tournament for the first time since 2000. Alexis Govan added another 20 WKU points.
The Longhorns will face host and No. 4 seed California in Berkeley on Sunday (8 p.m. Central, ESPN2).
• TEXAS-WKU SERIES: Texas now leads the series with WKU, 5-2, including a 2-1 mark in NCAA postseason play. This was the first meeting between Texas and WKU since the tradition-rich programs met for six consecutive seasons from 1985 to 1990.
• STARTERS: Texas used its 12th different starting lineup in 33 games this season, featuring five players with NCAA tournament experience -- Celina Rodrigo, Brady Sanders, Empress Davenport, Brianna Taylor, and Imani McGee-Stafford.
• NCAA TOURNAMENT W-L RECORDS: In the NCAA Championship, Texas is now 34-26 overall, 10-8 in the first round, 4-2 as a No. 5 seed, 32-11 as the higher seed, 15-11 on a neutral site, and 2-1 under Head Coach Karen Aston.
• POINTS IN THE PAINT: UT's 48 points in the paint is tied for the second-most this season. The Longhorns have now scored 48 points in the paint three times this season. The season high came with 58 points in the paint against McNeese State (Dec. 17, 2014).
• TURNOVERS: Texas committed just six turnovers in the second half after turning the ball over 13 times in the first half.
• SECOND HALF SHOOTERS: Texas shot 51.6 percent from the field in the second half (16-31 FG).
Imani McGee-Stafford (Junior, C)
• Led Texas with 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting from the free throw line in 30 minutes of action. Added 15 rebounds for her third consecutive double-double (seventh of the season and 26th of her career). Eight of her 15 rebounds were on offense.
• Scored 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting in the first half alone.
• Started first game since Jan. 17 against Texas Tech.
Brooke McCarty (Freshman, G)
• Came off the bench to score 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting in 25 minutes.
• All of her 10 points came in the second half.
Celina Rodrigo (Junior, G)
• Started first game since Jan. 19 at Baylor.
• Dished out four assists in 18 minutes.
Brady Sanders (Junior, G)
• Dished out five or more assists for the eighth time this season, finishing with five assists.
• Added nine points on 3-of-6 shooting with five rebounds in 27 minutes.
Empress Davenport (Junior, G)
• Started first game since Jan. 19 at Baylor.
• Scored seven points with four assists in 28 minutes.
Kelsey Lang (Sophomore, C)
• Reached double-digit rebounds for the third time this season and fourth time of her career, finishing with 11 rebounds in 21 minutes.
Head Coach Karen Aston
Opening Statement
A: "First of all, tons of credit to Western Kentucky and their game plan and their competiveness. I told our players after the game that this was obviously a hard-fought win and it was nothing to be ashamed of that it went to the wire because I was so impressed by them (Western Kentucky) throughout the week watching film and I knew they would present problems for us from a matchup perspective. I thought that our team made some adjustments in the second half by moving to a zone that broke their rhythm a little bit. I also think we stopped turning the ball over in the second half and started attacking and that was really ultimately the difference. I am proud of our players for holding in there and it wasn't easy, with first game jitters I thought we really held in there."
Q: What's the value of a close game to start off your tournament run?
A: "I think it's good in several ways. The players mentioned that they've been in these situations a lot in conference play and sometimes it hasn't worked out for them, so I think from a confidence perspective they made a lot of plays and individuals made plays that helped our team win. We also made a lot of adjustments in the second half, and those adjustments our players really had to buy into. They stopped thinking and just bought in right in the moment and that will help us in further games, but the first game is always hard. We have many players who have never been in the tournament before because we are a young basketball team, so I think getting this win under our belt is a great confidence booster for this team and obviously every game we can play is a positive for this program."
Q: Why did Imani (McGee-Stafford) start the game?
A: "If you have followed us all year long, you can see that the starting lineup for today's game was a completely different starting lineup than we had been going with. I went with a lineup I thought was experienced in the tournament, and I also, and speaking about Imani (McGee-Stafford) in particular, I think she played well in the Big 12 tournament, but she carried it over into practice. So frankly, the five that started were rewarded for practice performance and I felt comfortable with that lineup. We couldn't stay with that lineup for long though because they did get into foul trouble."
Q: What was your mindset when you were down seven points late in the game?
A: "I have to first of all give credit to my coaching staff because I'm stubborn and it irritates me when we can't guard someone and we really could not guard them from a penetration standpoint and they were stretching our post players out, and it was really our coaching staff who thought of something different and decided that we should go to a zone. We tried it, and I did not go to my gut there at the end of the game, and I should have gone back to man maybe one possession earlier but I do give my coaching staff credit for convincing me that we should go to a zone because that was really the difference. And I give credit to the players for going into the zone on the fly, because there was bumps that they had to talk about and I think that they were really engaged in something we hadn't talked about much. It showed me that they were very interested in winning."
Q: Were you amazed by the amount of three's Western Kentucky made throughout the game?
A: "They made 12 threes, and we are a really good team defending the three, so I just think that they are really good at what they do (Western Kentucky). They aren't complicated; in fact I think they ran the same play against our man throughout the entire second half. It isn't a complicated play, but they execute, their guards are really good at stretching you out, and their posts had combined for 45 points, which is really good. I knew it was going to be a matchup problem and while we did work on zone throughout the week, going to it was difficult. It helped in that we were able to play the big wide out ball, which I think was a positive force on the offensive side."
Imani McGee-Stafford (Junior, C)
Q: Did you feel it was tough to sustain momentum throughout the game?
A: "They are a really good team, their post players were really stretching us. I have got to give credit to (Chastity) Gooch and (Alexis) Govan for that, they were playing really well and they were shooting lights out, which was really frustrating because as soon as we would get some offensive points in, they would come back down and we would have to shut them down in the lane or along the three point line. We just tried to put together some stops and eventually, we were able to do that."
Q: You were out hurt at the beginning of the season. Are you now finally feeling the sense of urgency Coach Aston always talks about?
A: "Yes, I think I do. I'm really enjoying playing, and I didn't enjoy sitting out because it wasn't fun. And I think at the end of the day, we're still playing for Nekia (Jones) and Nneka (Enemkpali). They would give their lives to play with us right now so we can't not give it our all out there.
Q: What do you believe was Western Kentucky's scheme against you inside?
A: "I think they did a really good job of pulling me out when I was on defense. On offense, they found out to collapse a little bit, but we had been practicing all week about keeping the ball high, and just turning and shooting if I get good position. My teammates are doing a great job of passing me the ball when I'm in the right position, if I was collapsed, I was just trying to find the open player."
Q: How much do you think playing in games where you were in the same situation as today at the end helped you win the game?
A: "I think it helps a lot. Personally, we were in the huddle in the last four minutes and I just kept thinking to myself, we've been here before, we've been here before, we've come back from six or eight points with just a little bit of time left. So I think it's good knowing that we are able to come back and we have the experience from games earlier in the season."
Brooke McCarty (Freshman, G)
Q: Did you want to be the player to get the transition game going for your team?"
A: "I went in and did whatever I could for the team. I wanted to win and I knew the rest of the team wanted to win so we had to get some momentum. I just tried to do everything I could and the team, they bought in, and we all bought in, and that's why we pulled away."
Q: How much do you think playing in games where you were in the same situation as today at the end helped you win the game?
A: "Like Imani (McGee-Stafford) said, I think because of the experience we have, we know how hard we have to push because we have lost games like this. So we just thought back to those games every time we were in the huddle and we just pushed and pushed and pushed and we came out with the win."
