The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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No. 2 Women's Basketball preview: Washington
11.25.2017 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns and Huskies meet at 3:15 p.m. CT Saturday from Las Vegas.
No. 2/4 Texas Longhorns (4-0) vs. Washington Huskies (2-2)
Time: Saturday, November 25, 2017 | 3:15 p.m. CT
Location: South Point Arena | Las Vegas, Nev.
TV: None (Live stream available)
Radio: 105.3 FM (David Garrett, Fran Harris)
Game Notes | Live Video | Live Stats | Live Audio | Tickets
LAS VEGAS – The No. 2 Texas women's basketball team closes its trip to the South Point Shootout on Saturday when it faces Washington. Tip-off in South Point Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., is slated for 3:15 p.m. CT.
The Longhorns (4-0) are coming off a 75-66 win against LSU on Friday in the South Point Shootout. Four Texas players scored in double-figures in the game, led by a team-high 17 from senior guard Ariel Atkins. Senior forward Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau brought down a game-high 10 rebounds.
"We're going to have to play a lot better on the defensive end," Texas head coach Karen Aston said. "Our game plan was to allow LSU to shoot some shots, and they made some of them, but we were sort of playing our percentages with that. I don't think we can roll the dice on that against Washington. They can really shoot; our defense is going to have to be better."
Texas shot 52.6 percent from the field against LSU and is shooting 50.7 percent from the floor this season. The Longhorns are averaging 97.5 points per game and hold a scoring margin of +40.2.
Atkins leads the way for the Longhorns, averaging a squad-best 15.5 points per game, while senior guard Brooke McCarty follows with 13.0 points per game and junior guard Lashann Higgs adds 12.0 points per game. Atkins has a team-high 15 steals on the season, while McCarty has dished out a squad-best 22 assists. Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau is bringing down a team-high 5.8 rebounds per game.
Texas and Washington meet for the sixth time in the history of the two programs. The Huskies lead the all-time series 3-2. The two teams last met on December 29, 1997 in Seattle, a 78-72 Washington win. Texas is 57-29 (.663) all-time against teams in the current alignment of the Pacific-12 Conference.
Washington is 2-2 on the season and coming off a 67-64 win against Creighton on Friday at the South Point Shootout. Freshman forward Mai-Loni Henson had a team-high 17 points and the game-winner against Creighton on Friday. She is averaging 10.5 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game on the season. Sophomore guard Amber Melgoza is the team's leading scorer at 13.3 points per game.
QUICK NOTES
- Texas women's basketball is in the midst of its 44th season of intercollegiate basketball.
- Texas is one of just eight programs in NCAA Division I women's basketball history to reach 1,000 all-time wins. Texas ranks fifth all-time in NCAA history with 1,041 all-time victories.
- The Longhorns have made 30 all-time NCAA Tournament appearances, which is fourth-most of any program in NCAA D-I Women's Basketball history.
- Texas head coach Karen Aston is 118-55 (.682) now in her sixth season at the helm of the Longhorns. She is the program's second-winningest coach in UT history behind Jody Conradt's 783 victories on the Forty Acres.
- The 2016-17 Longhorns tied the school record for most Big 12 wins in a season at 15. The 2002-03 and 2015-16 squads also posted 15 Big 12 victories.
- Texas has advanced to three consecutive NCAA Sweet 16s for the first time since the 2002, 2003 and 2004 campaigns.
- Over the past two seasons, Texas has earned 14 wins against foes ranked in the Associated Press Top-25.
- Senior guard Brooke McCarty has 189 career three-pointers made, which is tied for fifth in program history with Heather Schreiber.
- McCarty ranks second in program history in three-point percentage at 40.8 percent (189-of-463) and is one of just four players in program history (Jamie Carey, Kat Nash and Vicki Hall are the others) to shoot better than 40 percent from beyond the arc for her career. Current UT assistant Jamie Carey is the school's all-time three-point field goal percentage leader at 41.8 percent.
- Senior guard Ariel Atkins now ranks 41st in program history with 1,036 career points.
- Atkins ranks sixth in school history in career free-throw percentage at 81.6 percent (204-of-250).
- Dating back to the start of the 2015-16 season, the Longhorns have won the rebound battle in 64 of 74 total games.
