The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
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Kansas
No. 7 Women's Basketball preview: Kansas
01.12.2018 | Women's Basketball
The Longhorns and the Jayhawks meet at 1 p.m. CT on Saturday at the Erwin Center.
No. 7/7 Texas Longhorns (13-2, 4-1 Big 12) vs. Kansas Jayhawks (11-5, 2-3 Big 12)
Time: Saturday, January 13, 2018 | 1 p.m. CT
Location: Austin, Texas | Frank Erwin Center (16,540)
TV: Longhorn Network (Alex Loeb, Fran Harris)
Radio: 105.3 FM (Roger Wallace, Kathy Harston)
Game Notes | WatchESPN | Live Stats | Live Audio | Tickets
The No. 7 Texas Women's Basketball team looks to bounce back from its loss to TCU when it plays host to Kansas on Saturday for Exes Weekend. Tip-off in the Frank Erwin Center is slated for 1 p.m. CT and the game will be televised nationally by Longhorn Network.
Texas will welcome back more than 50 former players for its annual Exes Weekend event and those in attendance will be recognized at halftime.
Texas is the nation's No. 2 team in rebounding margin with a +14.0 edge on the glass. The Longhorns also rank ninth nationally in rebounds per game with 45.20. Texas has won the battle of the boards in 14 of 15 games this season and, dating back to the start of the 2015-16 campaign, UT has held the edge on the glass in 74 of 85 total games. Offensively, Texas ranks 11th nationally in scoring offense (85.6 ppg) and 11th in scoring margin (+21.6).
Junior guard Lashann Higgs, the reigning Big 12 Player of the Week, leads the way for the Longhorns, averaging a squad-best 14.9 points per game and she ranks 17th nationally in field-goal percentage at .593. In conference play alone, Higgs is averaging 21.2 points per game, shooting 65 percent from the field and has a team-high 13 steals.
Senior guard Ariel Atkins follows with 14.1 points per game and ranks second in the Big 12 Conference (all games combined) in steals per game (2.7) and fourth in three-point field-goal percentage (.429). Senior guard Brooke McCarty adds 13.9 points per game and a team-high 5.3 assists per game, which ranks fifth in the Big 12. McCarty is second in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.7.
Junior center Jatarie White leads Texas and ranks 16th in the Big 12 in rebounds per game at 6.0, while contributing 10.7 points per game.
Texas and Kansas are meeting for the 35th time in the history of the two programs. The Longhorns lead the all-time series 24-10. Texas has won 10 consecutive meetings in the all-time series with Kansas and the Longhorns are 11-4 against the Jayhawks in Austin.
The Jayhawks enter Saturday's game with an 11-5 overall record and a 2-3 tally in Big 12 Conference play. Kansas has lost back-to-back games to Baylor and West Virginia. The Jayhawks opened the 2017-18 season with a seven-game winning streak, and they currently rank 16th in the nation in field-goal percentage defense, holding opponents to a shooting percentage of .347 from the field.
Junior guard Christalah Lyons leads Kansas, averaging 15.0 points per game and 3.6 assists per game in Big 12 play, which ranks her 15th in scoring and sixth in assists in the conference. She has scored in double figures in 14 of the Jayhawks' 16 games this season.
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 1,050 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 127-57 (.690) 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 17 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 74 of 85 total games. Texas has held the edge on the boards in 14 of 15 games this season and ranks second nationally in rebound margin (+14.0). The Longhorns are averaging 45.20 rebounds per game, which ranks ninth nationally.
- Texas ranks 11th nationally in scoring offense (85.6 ppg) and 11th in scoring margin (+21.6).
- Senior guard Brooke McCarty has 203 career three-pointers made, which ranks fourth all-time in program history. She is one of only four players in school annals to accomplish that milestone. McCarty needs 20 more three-pointers to surpass Chassidy Fussell (220 career threes) for third place all-time.
- McCarty ranks fourth in program history in three-point percentage at 39.6 percent (203-of-513). Just four players in program history (Jamie Carey, Kathleen Nash and Vicki Hall) have shot 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 Brooke McCarty leads the Big 12 Conference in free-throw percentage at 92.9 percent (26-of-28).
- McCarty is second in the Big 12 Conference and 26th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.74.
- Senior guard Ariel Atkins ranks fourth in program history in free-throw percentage with an 82.8 percent clip (226-of-273).
- Atkins (101) and McCarty (119) have each played in more than 100 career games for the Longhorns.
- Junior guard Lashann Higgs ranks 17th nationally in field-goal percentage at 59.3 percent.
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