The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
0-0,0-0Big 12
Lubbock Christian (Exh.)
0-0,0-0Lone Star
Women's Basketball defeats Lubbock Christian, 83-73
10.28.2019 | Women's Basketball
Allen-Taylor scores 24 in season-opening exhibition game.
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas women's basketball team persevered through an injury-shortened roster to win its exhibition game against defending NCAA Division II Champion Lubbock Christian, 83-73, on Monday night at the Frank Erwin Center.
Texas scored the game's first 10 points, held a 15-2 lead during the first quarter, and was prevailing by 13 points at halftime—before Lubbock Christian went on a run at the beginning of the fourth quarter that trimmed the UT lead to four. But six consecutive Longhorn defensive stops, combined with an 11-0 scoring run, rallied the Longhorns to victory.
Joanne Allen-Taylor led Texas with 24 points. Jada Underwood had 20 and Lashann Higgs 16.
KEY STATISTICS
- The Longhorns started Higgs, Underwood, Allen-Taylor, Celeste Taylor and Charli Collier.
- Texas jumped out to a 15-2 lead. Allen-Taylor scored eight, Higgs seven and Isabel Palmer six, as the Longhorns finished the first quarter with a 27-17 lead.
- Texas led, 46-34, at halftime. Allen-Taylor led the Longhorns with 15 points. Higgs had 10.
- Foul trouble and injuries caught up with Texas in the third quarter, as the Lady Chaparrals cut the margin to eight points at the 1:05 mark, and finished the period trailing the Longhorns by nine, 65-56.
- Lubbock Christian scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to trim the UT lead to four, 65-61.
- A basket by Underwood [7:52], a three-point play by Allen-Taylor [6:47], two free throws by Collier [6:20] and four by Underwood [5:59 and 5:36] fueled an 11-0 Longhorn run that reestablished a 15-point lead.
- Allen-Taylor played all 40 minutes for the Horns.
- Maddi Chitsey and Madelyn Turner led Lubbock Christian with 22 and 18 points, respectively.
TEXAS HEAD COACH KAREN ASTON
"I thought it was good to get our team under the lights. You always think you see certain things in practice, or you need to see combinations, and sometimes those situations don't happen until you get into the game situations and again get under the lights. I thought it was really important for our young players to put on a uniform and see what that feels like and get the experience of the game. There's no sense in me being overly critical. First of all, I think it'd be disrespectful to Lubbock Christian which is a really good basketball team; they execute well. We're in a tough situation right now where we have kids that are trying, I think, sometimes not to foul. That ends up being a worst-case scenario because they get caught late. Then we had combinations that we have never played with. We had a couple players that literally have only had a few days of practice. I admire my team's effort tonight. We'll grow from this and every day we step on the floor we're going to get better just because of game experience and players playing that didn't get a lot of minutes last year."
LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN HEAD COACH STEVE GOMEZ
"I greatly appreciate [Texas] giving us a chance to play. You know they are obviously short-benched with some injuries, but they are just a tremendous program. We had a chance to just learn a little bit tonight and figure out some things. They can really defend, and they locked us down for a good stretch there late. In the fourth quarter, they really got serious and that little burst got us. I give credit to them for shooting the ball so well in the first half. We came out in zone thinking maybe they are going to miss a few of those but great job by them on knocking down some perimeter shots. Which was not our hope because we were hoping they were going to have to score somewhere else. That's great for them and that bodes well especially missing obviously their very vital players. So, as the year goes on they are going to be a great team."
NEXT UP
The Longhorns begin the regular season against USF in Tampa on Friday, Nov. 8, at 6 p.m. CT at the Yuengling Center. The game can be heard of FM 105.3 in Austin and on TexasSports.com/audio.
