The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Northwestern State
No. 8 Women's Basketball preview: Northwestern State
12.12.2017 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns and Lady Demons meet Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT in the Frank Erwin Center.
No. 8/8 Texas Longhorns (7-1) vs. Northwestern State Lady Demons (4-4)
Time: Wednesday, December 13, 2017 | 7 p.m. CT
Location: Austin, Texas | Frank Erwin Center (16,540)
TV: Longhorn Network (Alex Loeb, Fran Harris)
Radio: 105.3 FM (Craig Way, Chris Plonsky)
Game Notes | WatchESPN | Live Stats | Live Audio | Tickets
The No. 8 Texas women's basketball team returns to the Frank Erwin Center for the first time in nearly two weeks on Wednesday when it plays host to Northwestern State. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. CT and the game will be televised nationally by Longhorn Network.
Texas (7-1) is coming off its first loss of the season, dropping an 82-75 decision at No. 11 Tennessee on Sunday. The Longhorns are 4-0 at home this season and 36-4 (.900) within the Erwin Center since the start of the 2015-16 season.
The National Anthem will be performed by Phi Mu Alpha, UT's premier student acapella group, while the halftime entertainment will feature a performance by Hyde Park Dance. After the game, fans are invited down to the court for postgame autographs with Texas women's basketball players.
Through eight games this season, Texas ranks fourth nationally in scoring offense (90.8 points per game) and is fifth in scoring margin (+30.0).
Texas has won the battle of the boards in seven of eight games this season and, dating back to the start of the 2015-16 season, UT has held the edge on the glass in 67 of 78 total games. The Longhorns rank eighth nationally in rebounds per game (46.63) and eighth in rebound margin (+13.0).
"The first item of preparation is us being a lot more detail-oriented than we were against Tennessee," Texas head coach Karen Aston said. "Northwestern State will present some challenges for us. They screen a lot, they're very, very active offensively in the way they move and it's going to test our defense, which I anticipate some improvement in. Defensively, they'll mix defenses and they do control tempo with the way they play defensively."
Senior guard Ariel Atkins leads the way for the Longhorns, averaging a squad-best 14.4 points per game. She ranks seventh in the Big 12 Conference in field-goal percentage at 60.9 percent, is third in the league in steals per game (2.6) and third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.5).
Senior point guard Brooke McCarty follows with 12.8 points per game and a squad-best 4.6 assists per game, which ranks sixth in the Big 12 Conference. Junior guard Lashann Higgs contributes 12.3 points per game, while junior center Jatarie White adds 11.4 points per game. Senior forward Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau brings down 5.6 rebounds per game.
Texas and Northwestern State meet for the sixth time in the history of the two programs and for the fifth consecutive year. The Longhorns lead the all-time series 5-0. Texas defeated Northwestern State 86-39 in Austin last season. The Longhorns are 50-9 (.847) all-time against teams in the current alignment of the Southland Conference.
The Lady Demons enter Wednesday's game with a 4-4 overall record and they are coming off a 56-43 loss to Texas Southern on Saturday evening. Eight of Northwestern State's 15 players are Texas natives. This is the first of six road games in the state of Texas for Northwestern State this season.
Junior forward/center Cheyenne Brown, who missed the first five games of the season due to injury, is averaging a team-best 15.3 points per game and a squad-best 4.7 rebounds 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 1,044 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 121-56 (.684) 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 combined, Texas has earned 14 wins against foes ranked in the Associated Press Top-25.
- Through eight games this season, Texas ranks fourth nationally in scoring offense (90.8 points per game) and is fifth in scoring margin (+30.0).
- Dating back to the start of the 2015-16 season, the Longhorns have won the rebound battle in 67 of 78 total games. Texas has held the edge on the boards in seven of eight games this season and ranks eighth nationally in rebound margin at +13.0.
- Senior guard Brooke McCarty has 196 career three-pointers made, which ranks fourth all-time in program history. McCarty needs four more treys to become just the fourth player in program history to make 200 or more shots from beyond the arc.
- McCarty ranks fourth in program history in three-point percentage at 40.3 percent (196-of-486) and is one of just four players in program history (Jamie Carey, Kathleen Nash and Vicki Hall are the others) to shoot better than 40 percent from beyond the arc for her career. Carey is the school's all-time three-point field goal percentage leader at 41.8 percent.
- Senior guard Ariel Atkins ranks fifth in program history in free-throw percentage with a 82.4 percent clip (215-of-261).
- Atkins ranks third in the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio with a 2.5 ratio.
- Atkins' next game will be her 95th in a Texas uniform.
