Women's Basketball shoots and steals its way past K-State, 71-63 - University of Texas Athletics (2024)

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Game Recap: Women's Basketball | 01.19.2020 | Dr. David C. Nelson | Texas Media Relations

Longhorns stifle a determined Wildcat rally in the fourth quarter.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Texas achieved season highs in three-pointers (11) and steals (21) but survived late-game foul trouble and a determined Kansas State comeback, as the Longhorns defeated the Wildcats, 71-63, in a Big 12 Conference game on Sunday afternoon in Bramlage Coliseum.

Texas (11-6, 3-2) led by 12 points with eight minutes left in the game, but Kansas State (7-8, 1-3) rallied to cut the Longhorns' lead to four points on a three-pointer by Angela Harris with 56 seconds remaining. However, four ensuing free throws by UT's Sug Sutton gave the Longhorns their eight-point victory.

Texas held on despite the fact that four starters got into foul trouble and missed key minutes -- Joyner Holmes and Charli Collier with four fouls each, and Sutton and Lashann Higgs with three apiece.

Sutton and Celeste Taylor led UT in scoring with 16 and 15 points, respectively, with Taylor hitting four three pointers. Jada Underwood scored 11 points. Taylor had seven steals, and Undewood and Holmes had four each.

Texas held K-Statewithout a field goal for the first four minutes and 20 seconds of the first quarter, as the Longhorns raced to an 8-2 lead. UT hit a trio of three pointers in the early going, but the Wildcats scored six points off of Texas turnovers – as KSU rallied to close the Longhorn lead to 18-17 at the end of the initial period.

Texas stole the ball seven times in the second quarter, as a tenacious defense held K-Stateto nine points. Taylor's nine points, all via three pointers, and Underwood's seven points led Texas to a 35-26 halftime lead. The Longhorns hit seven of 13 shots from behind the arc (54 percent), in the first half.

Texas and Kansas State played evenly for the first portion of the third quarter, and then the Longhorns rallied to go ahead by 13 points with three minutes remaining. However,several Longhorns missedminutes because of foul trouble, and K-State closed the gap to six, 52-46, to conclude the penultimate quarter.

Kansas State trimmed the margin to four early in the fourth quarter. Texas then went on an 8-0 streak to lead by a dozen points before K-State's late-game rally that the Longhorns successfully thwarted.

KEY STATISTICS

• The Longhorns started Higgs, Collier, Sutton, Holmes and Underwood.
• The Longhorns lead the all-time series between the two teams, 23-16.
• Texas hit 41 percent of its three-point field goals. K-Statehit 19 percent.
• UT benefited from 24 K-Stateturnovers.
• Texas hit 86 percent of its free throws.

TEXAS HEAD COACH KAREN ASTON

"Any win on the road in the Big 12 is a big one. In particular for our team. It's been a struggle here in Manhattan, as today was. I just thought that were able to withstand the runs and have the mental toughness to be able to finish some plays and finish the game. The best thing was to get out of here with a win, and we did."

On accomplishing the game plan:

"I think we did a very admirable job on their bigs. I thought we were a little lackadaisical to start the game, just with our ball pressure and what the game plan really was. I thought we did a good job on Peyton (Williams). I thought we gave our bigs help when it was really necessary, and maybe that turned into some open shots for their guards. I'll have to look at the film. I thought we could have played better, but they (K-State) played with some urgency today. We had some segments where we didn't do that."

On moving the ball around the perimeter and taking open shots, especially three pointers:

"I think that's what was available today. In the first half, we over-penetrated. That's because we're a penetrating team. We had a lot of turnovers caused by over-penetrating – we were trying to force the ball inside. I thought we took what was available. We'll look at that. But I thought we made some pretty good decisions and shot the ball well."

UP NEXT

Texas returns home on Wednesday to play host to Kansas. Tip-off in the Frank Erwin Center is slated for 7 p.m. CT and the game will be nationally televised by Longhorn Network. The game will be available on radio at 105.3 FM in Austin and online at TexasSports.com/audio.