The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
No. 4/4 Baylor
No. 8 Women's Basketball preview: No. 4 Baylor [Feb. 20, 2017]
02.19.2017 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns and Lady Bears meet for right to stay atop Big 12 Conference standings.
No. 8/8 Texas Longhorns (21-5, 14-1 Big 12) vs. No. 4/4 Baylor Lady Bears (25-2, 14-1 Big 12)
Time: Monday, February 20, 2017 | 8 p.m. CT
Location: Austin, Texas | Frank Erwin Center (16,540)
TV: ESPN2 (Dave O'Brien, Kara Lawson)
Radio: 105.3 FM (Roger Wallace, Fran Harris)
Game Notes | WatchESPN | Live Stats | Live Audio | Tickets
$5 Ticket Promo - Enter promo code BIGMONDAY
AUSTIN, Texas – It will be a match-up of the two teams atop the Big 12 Conference standings on Monday when No. 8/8 Texas plays host to No. 4/4 Baylor presented by AT&T. Tip-off in the Frank Erwin Center is slated for 8 p.m. CT and the game will be televised nationally by ESPN2. The Longhorns look to sweep the season series with the Lady Bears for the first time since 2010.
The Longhorns (21-5, 14-1 Big 12 Conference) are coming off a 74-73 last-second loss to No. 19/19 Oklahoma on Saturday in Norman. That snapped Texas' 19-game winning streak, which had been the second-longest active win streak in the nation and tied for the 10th-longest win streak in UT school history.
Texas is 30-2 (.938) within the Frank Erwin Center over the past two seasons. The Longhorns are 59-6 (.908) since the start of the 2013-14 season inside The Drum. Five of those six losses came to opponents ranked in the top-six nationally.
Texas fans are encouraged to wear pink as part of a month-long commitment to breast cancer awareness.
The first 200 UT students in attendance inside Entrance E will receive a Texas Basketball hooded shirt. The UT student shuttle will run beginning 90 minutes prior to tipoff.
The Olate Dogs, winners of the 2012 America's Got Talent competition, will do a seven-minute featured performance at halftime. After the game, fans are invited down to the court for postgame autographs with Texas players and coaches.
The Longhorns are led by junior point guard Brooke McCarty, who ranks seventh in the Big 12 Conference in scoring, averaging 14.5 points per game. McCarty also ranks second in the Big 12 in both three-point field-goal percentage (.446) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.4). She is seventh in the league in assists at 3.7 dishes per game.
Junior guard Ariel Atkins follows with 13.5 points per game, which ranks 14th in the Big 12 Conference. She also is fifth in the league in steals per game at 1.9. Freshman guard/forward Joyner Holmes has been named the Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Week five times this season and four consecutive weeks. This past week, she also was the espnW National Player of the Week and the USBWA National Freshman of the Week. Holmes averages 12.4 points per game and a team-high 8.3 rebounds per game, both of which are tops among Big 12 freshmen.
Senior center Kelsey Lang is second on the team and fourth in the conference in rebounding at 8.2 boards per game. She also adds 9.9 points per game and a team-best 2.2 blocks per game, which is second in the Big 12.
Texas and Baylor meet for the 94th time in the history of the two programs. The Longhorns lead the all-time series 58-35, including a 26-13 mark when the game is played in Austin. Texas beat Baylor 85-79 in Waco earlier this season, snapping a 14-game losing streak to the Lady Bears that dated back to 2010.
Baylor enters Monday's game with a 25-2 overall record and a 14-1 mark in Big 12 Conference play. The Lady Bears have won two consecutive games, last defeating Oklahoma State 89-67 on Saturday evening, since falling to Texas on Feb. 6. Baylor leads the Big 12 Conference in 17 major statistical categories, including scoring offense (89.5), scoring defense (54.1) and rebound margin (+21.7). Senior guard Alexis Jones leads the Lady Bears and ranks eighth in the Big 12 Conference in scoring with 14.4 points per game. Sophomore forward/center Kalani Brown follows with 14.3 points per game. Brown also is the team's leading rebounder at 8.1 boards per game.
QUICK NOTES
• Texas women's basketball is in the midst of its 43rd season of intercollegiate basketball.
• The Longhorns have won 12 conference regular season titles and 10 conference tournament titles.
• Texas is one of just eight programs in NCAA Division I women's basketball history to reach 1,000 all-time wins. The Longhorns achieved the milestone on January 27, 2016. Texas ranks fifth all-time in NCAA history with 1,033 all-time victories.
• The Longhorns consistently play a rigorous non-conference schedule. The Longhorns' schedule this season consisted of six non-conference opponents that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 or further during the 2015-16 campaign.
• Texas head coach Karen Aston is 110-50 (.683) in her fifth 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.
• Since the start of the 2013-14 season, Texas is 59-6 (.908) when playing in the Frank Erwin Center. The Longhorns are 30-2 (.938) at home over the past two seasons.
• This year's team set the UT school record for most consecutive Big 12 conference victories at 14.
• Texas has won the rebound battle in 24 of its 26 games so far this season and holds a rebound margin of +11.0. The Longhorns rank fifth nationally in rebound margin.
• The Longhorns rank 11th nationally in blocked shots per game with 5.9 blocks per game.
• Over the past two seasons, Texas is 12-10 (.545) against foes ranked in the Associated Press Top-25, including a 5-5 (.500) mark this season.
• Senior center Kelsey Lang has played in 130 games in her UT career. She needs to play in three more games to move into the all-time Texas top-10 list in career games played. She recently became the 41st member of the school's all-time 1,000-point club and has 1,034 career points at UT.
• Lang currently ranks seventh in UT school history with 168 career blocks.
• Junior guard Brooke McCarty has 166 career three-pointers made, which ranks seventh all-time in UT history.
• McCarty ranks second in school history in three-point field goal percentage with a .406 clip (166-of-409). Current Texas assistant Jamie Carey holds the school record in three-point field goal percentage at .418.
• McCarty eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau on Feb. 6 vs. Baylor and became the 42nd player in school history to do so. She has 1,052 career points.
