The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
West Virginia
No. 12 Women's Basketball preview: West Virginia [March 5, 2017]
03.05.2017 | Women's Basketball
Longhorns are 5-4 all-time in Big 12 Tournament semifinal games.
No. 12/14 Texas Longhorns (23-7, 15-3 Big 12) vs. West Virginia Mountaineers (21-10, 8-10 Big 12)
Time: Sunday, March 5, 2017 | 4 p.m. CT
Location: Oklahoma City, Okla. | Chesapeake Energy Arena (18,203)
TV: FS1 (Ron Thulin, Brenda VanLengen, Missy Heidrick)
Radio: 105.3 FM (Craig Way, Fran Harris)
Game Notes | Live Stats | Live Audio |
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – The No. 12/14 University of Texas women's basketball team has advanced to the semifinal round of the Big 12 Championship for the fourth consecutive year. The Longhorns will meet West Virginia on Sunday, looking to move on to the championship game for the third year in a row. Tip-off inside Chesapeake Energy Arena is slated for 4 p.m. CT on FS1.
The Longhorns (23-7, 15-3 Big 12 Conference) are coming off a 71-60 victory against Oklahoma State on Saturday evening in the quarterfinal round. Junior point guard Brooke McCarty, the 2017 Big 12 Player of the Year, scored a team-high 13 points to lead four Longhorns scoring in double figures. Ten of Texas' 12 available players scored on Saturday in a balanced effort.
Texas is 24-19 (.558) all-time in Big 12 Tournament play. The Longhorns are participating in the semifinal round for the 10th time in program history and Texas is 5-4 (.556) all-time in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals.
McCarty leads the Longhorns in scoring, averaging 14.1 points per game. In all games combined for the Longhorns, McCarty ranks ninth in the Big 12 in scoring, second in three-point percentage (.429) and third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.2). McCarty has played a squad-best 1008 minutes this season and her 33.6 minutes-per-game average currently ranks eighth on the school's single-season minutes average list.
Junior guard Ariel Atkins follows with 13.0 points per game, which ranks 15th in the Big 12. Atkins is the league's steals leader with 2.1 takeaways per contest. Freshman guard/forward Joyner Holmes, the 2017 Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year, averages 12.0 points per game and a team-high 8.2 rebounds per game. Holmes is first among Big 12 freshmen in scoring, rebounding and double-doubles (8).
Senior center Kelsey Lang is the team-leader in blocks with 2.1 rejections per game, which ranks second in the Big 12 Conference. Lang also is ninth in the league in rebounding, bringing down 7.6 boards per game. In the win against Oklahoma State on Saturday night, Lang scored 10 points – all in the second half – and went a perfect 5-for-5 from the field.
Texas and West Virginia meet for the 14th time in the history of the two programs with the Longhorns leading the all-time series 8-5. This will mark the second consecutive year in which the two teams have met in the Big 12 Semifinals. Texas has won five consecutive games in the series with West Virginia.
The Mountaineers defeated Oklahoma 82-58 in Saturday's quarterfinal round. Sophomore guard Tynice Martin scored a game-high 21 points and junior forward Teana Muldrow added 19 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Martin averages a squad-best 17.9 points per game on the season for West Virginia.
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 1,035 all-time victories.
• The Longhorns consistently play a rigorous non-conference schedule. Texas' 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 112-53 (.679) 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.
• This year's team set the UT school record for most consecutive Big 12 conference victories at 14.
• The 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 won the rebound battle in 27 of its 30 games so far this season and holds a rebound margin of +10.3. The Longhorns rank sixth nationally in rebound margin.
• The Longhorns rank 15th nationally in blocked shots per game with 5.6 blocks per game.
• Over the past two seasons, Texas is 13-11 (.542) against foes ranked in the Associated Press Top-25, including a 6-6 (.500) mark this season.
• Senior center Kelsey Lang has played in 134 games in her UT career, which ranks tied for sixth all-time in career games played for the Longhorns. She recently became the 41st member of the school's all-time 1,000-point club and has 1,059 career points at UT.
• Lang currently ranks seventh in UT school history with 175 career blocks.
• Junior guard Brooke McCarty has 173 career three-pointers made, which ranks seventh all-time in UT history.
• McCarty ranks fourth in school history in three-point field goal percentage with a .401 clip (173-of-431). 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 1,096 career points.
