The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oklahoma
No. 8 Women's Basketball preview: Oklahoma [Dec. 28, 2017]
12.26.2017 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns seek first win in Norman since the 2009-10 season.
No. 8/8 Texas Longhorns (9-1) at Oklahoma Sooners (5-6)
Time: Thursday, December 28, 2017 | 7 p.m. CT
Location: Norman, Okla. | Lloyd Noble Center (11,562)
TV: Fox Sports Oklahoma / Fox College Sports Central (Chad McKee, Dan Hughes)
Radio: 105.3 FM (Craig Way, Fran Harris)
Game Notes | Live Stats | Live Audio | Tickets
The No. 8/8 University of Texas women's basketball team seeks its first win in the Lloyd Noble Center since February 3, 2010, when it travels to Norman, Okla., to open Big 12 Conference play on Thursday against Oklahoma. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. CT and the game will be televised by Fox Sports Oklahoma and Fox College Sports Central. It will mark the earliest date that Texas has ever played a Big 12 Conference opener.
Texas is 11-10 all-time in Big 12 Conference openers and has won three consecutive league lid-lifters. Last season, the Longhorns defeated Texas Tech 67-47 on December 29, 2016 in Austin, Texas, to open Big 12 Conference play. Over the past two seasons combined, Texas is 30-6 (.833) in Big 12 play.
The Longhorns (9-1) are coming off an 87-72 win against No. 12 and previously undefeated Florida State on December 17 at the Frank Erwin Center. Senior point guard Brooke McCarty scored a season-high 24 points with three three-pointers and dished out six assists with no turnovers in 34 minutes of play. For her standout performance, she was named the Big 12 Conference's Player of the Week.
Texas has won the battle of the boards in nine of 10 games this season and, dating back to the start of the 2015-16 season, UT has held the edge on the glass in 69 of 80 total games. The Longhorns rank fourth nationally in rebound margin (+13.3) and eighth in rebounds per game (45.9).
Senior guard Ariel Atkins leads the way for the Longhorns, averaging a squad-best 14.5 points per game. She is shooting 58.9 percent from the field. Atkins ranks second in the Big 12 Conference in steals per game (2.8) and three-point field-goal percentage (.500). She also ranks fifth in free-throw percentage (.857) and seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.2).
McCarty follows with 14.0 points per game and a team-leading 2.7 assist-to-turnover ratio, which ranks third in the Big 12 Conference. McCarty also leads her team and ranks sixth in the Big 12 in assists per game (4.8). She is eighth in the Big 12 in steals per game (2.0), three-point field-goal percentage (.439) and three-point field-goals made (18). McCarty has 199 career three-pointers made and needs one more to become just the fourth player in program history to make 200 career three-pointers.
Junior guard Lashann Higgs follows with 11.8 points per game, while junior center Jatarie White adds 11.6 points per game and is bringing down a squad-best 5.9 rebounds per game. Senior forward Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau is contributing 6.1 rebounds per game and 5.0 rebounds per game.
Texas and Oklahoma meet for the 55th time in the history of the two programs. The Longhorns lead the all-time series between the two teams 29-25 and have won five of the last eight meetings. The Sooners lead the series 15-8 when the game is played in Norman and Oklahoma has won seven consecutive meetings in the series within the Lloyd Noble Center.
The Sooners enter Thursday's contest with a 5-6 overall record and are coming off an 88-64 loss to No. 1 UConn on December 19. Earlier in December, Oklahoma notched a quality win against No. 16 South Florida, which marked the first victory by the Sooners against a top-25 non-conference team at home since 2013.
Oklahoma is led by senior center Vionise Pierre-Louis, who is averaging a squad-best 16.0 points per game and 8.6 rebounds per game. Senior guard Gabbi Ortiz follows with 15.0 points per game to complement 15 steals, while senior guard Maddie Manning contributes 13.1 points per game with team-highs of 28 assists and 16 steals.
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 1,046 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 123-56 (.687) 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.
- Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Texas has earned 15 wins against foes ranked in the Associated Press Top-25.
- Dating back to the start of the 2015-16 season, the Longhorns have won the rebound battle in 69 of 80 total games. Texas has held the edge on the boards in nine of 10 games this season and ranks fourth nationally in rebound margin (+13.3).
- Senior guard Brooke McCarty has 199 career three-pointers made, which ranks fourth all-time in program history. McCarty needs one more trey to become just the fourth player in program history to make 200 or more shots from beyond the arc.
- McCarty ranks second in program history in three-point percentage at 40.6 percent (199-of-490) 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 82.5 percent clip (221-of-268). She was 6-for-7 at the charity stripe in the team's last outing against FSU.
- Atkins ranks 27th nationally in field-goal percentage with a 58.9 percent clip.
- Atkins has played in 96 career games in a Texas uniform. She and McCarty (114 games) are the active career leaders in games played.
TEXAS IN BIG 12 CONFERENCE OPENERS
Date – Opponent - Result
01/04/97 - at Oklahoma State - W, 83-70
01/03/98 - at Oklahoma State - L, 61-82
01/02/99 – Colorado - W, 83-65
01/05/00 - Kansas State - W, 80-58
01/03/01 - Texas A&M - W, 62-49
01/02/02 - at Nebraska - W, 61-54
01/08/03 - Oklahoma State - W, 77-44
01/07/04 - at Kansas - W, 73-54
01/05/05 – Kansas - W, 66-51
01/03/06 - at Kansas - L, 61-70
01/03/07 – Nebraska - L, 75-79
01/09/08 - at Nebraska - L, 45-56
01/10/09 - at Texas Tech - L, 62-65
01/09/10 - Texas A&M - L, 70-91
01/08/11 - at Missouri - L, 80-85 (OT)
01/04/12 – Kansas - L, 67-72
01/02/13 - at Iowa State - L, 65-73 (OT)
01/02/14 - at Oklahoma State - L, 61-67
01/03/15 – Kansas - W, 60-46
12/30/15 - at West Virginia - W, 65-54
12/29/16 - Texas Tech - W, 67-47
