The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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Arizona
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No. 22 Women's Basketball falls to hot-shooting Arizona
11.17.2019 | Women's Basketball
Collier and Holmes record double-doubles for third consecutive game.
AUSTIN, Texas – Arizona used a 44-point effort from guard Aari McDonald to defeat No. 22 Texas, 83-58, on Sunday afternoon at the Frank Erwin Center.
The Wildcats (4-0) shot 50 percent from the floor, 43 percent from beyond the three-point arc and 87 percent from the charity stripe. McDonald hit 14 of 18 field goal attempts and a perfect 14 of 14 from the free throw line.
For the third straight game, Texas (1-2) had double-doubles from Joyner Holmes, who scored 16 points and got 11 rebounds, and Charli Collier, who bucketed 12 points and retrieved 11 boards. After a cold start, the Longhorns shot 39 percent from the floor for the game.
In the first quarter, Arizona fired a blistering 58 percent, and hit four of eight three-pointers. Texas made only one of its first ten shots from the floor, as the Wildcats raced to a 26-11 lead at the end of the period. UT's Holmes bucketed three consecutive shots, one a three-pointer, late in the quarter.
Arizona took a 38-19 lead into halftime, shooing 48 percent from the floor for the half, while the Longhorns shot 29 percent. Holmes led Texas scorers with nine points. McDonald shot eight for 11 from the floor, including two three-pointers, and hit all four of her free throws, to lead the Wildcats with 22 points in the halftime statistics.
The Longhorns cut the Wildcat lead to 15 points on five occasions during the third quarter, thanks to a 53 percent UT shooting percentage for the period.
Collier sank two three-pointers for Texas in the fourth quarter.
KEY STATISTICS
- The Longhorns started Holmes, Collier, Sutton, Celeste Taylor and Jada Underwood.
- Texas now leads the all-time series with Arizona, 2-1.
- Texas won the rebound battle, 34-30.
- Arizona turned the ball over nine times, while Texas had 21 turnovers.
- McDonald's 44 points tied a Texas home-court record for the most points scored against a Longhorn women's team.
TEXAS HEAD COACH KAREN ASTON
"Definitely our hats are off to Arizona and to the way they played. I'm somewhat surprised and puzzled with how we're approaching the start of games and our lack of aggression. But again, I thought Arizona really, really came out and shot the ball well early. We tried some different defenses to throw them off a little, but Aari [McDonald] was too good today. We tried several different things, but we didn't have an answer for her. But it goes back to a lot of fundamentals that we're just not really doing very well.
"They had a specific game plan against us, and I thought we had one for them. They made us pay a little bit for the way we game planned, and I think we weren't able to do that to them. When we did get some confidence and some things going offensively, we could never get any stops. As much as it seems like offense is our problem, I think the fact that we can't get consecutive stops is a bigger problem. I think we're really struggling defensively."
ARIZONA HEAD COACH ADIA BARNES
"We're always underrated. We don't look into that stuff. We know how good our team is; we know what we're capable of doing. We don't really look into the rankings and the hype. You know, it's funny because we're used to playing ranked teams; we play a ranked team every weekend in our league. We have one of the strongest conferences in the country. So, we just kind of go in and do our thing, and Aari was phenomenal tonight. I would say the game plan wasn't her, but that's just kind of how it turned out. She was just unstoppable tonight. And then Texas is a very good team."
UP NEXT
Texas will host UTRGV on Wednesday morning at the Frank Erwin Center. Tipoff is scheduled at 11 a.m. CT for the annual 40 Acres Field Trip Day, when UT will host thousands of local fourth through seventh graders. The game will be available on radio at 105.3 FM in Austin and will be televised nationwide on the Longhorn Network.
