No. 8 women’s basketball stays undefeated with win at No. 4 Tennessee

By Blanche Schaefer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The University of Texas women’s basketball team extended its undefeated start to the 2015-16 season when freshman guard Lashann Higgs scored a career-high 18 points to lead the No. 8 Longhorns to a 64-53 road victory over the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers.

The win improved UT’s record to 5-0, and gave the Longhorns consecutive victories over Tennessee for the first time since they won four straight against the Volunteers between 2002 and 2004.

Texas head coach Karen Aston acknowledged that the game was not [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]always the most visually attractive style of basketball, but said the grit and toughness the teams displayed was indicative of the kind of battles that usually take place between the teams.

“I am really proud of our team’s mentality,” Texas head coach Karen Aston said. “We’ve talked a lot about how we had to have a better road mentality. It was a bit of an ugly game, but it usually is an aggressive game when these two teams play. Our defense, from a team perspective, was extremely good, and we stayed disciplined defensively. Our guards made good decisions, especially in the first half, and that gave us a lot of confidence. The exciting thing is, I think we can get a lot better, but I am very proud of how we came in and played with a great road mentality today.”

In addition to the 18 points from Higgs, who got half of her points on a trio of shots from behind the three-point line, Texas also got double-digit scoring contributions from guard Brooke McCarty, who had 21 points and seven rebounds, and center Imani Boyette, who scored 11 points and came within a single rebound of notching a double-double.

Higgs said that her performance was a matter of her being patient enough to wait for lapses by the Tennessee defense.

“Tennessee is a really good defensive team,” Higgs said. “I just tried to stick to my game. I just saw the gaps that they were giving me, and I just took them.”

Texas led, 29-24, at halftime, thanks to a strong defense that limited Tennessee to just eight points in the second quarter, and extended its lead to 10 points with a 7-2 run at the start of the second half. The lead grew to as many as 11 points, but Tennessee was able to close the gap to four points.

Tennessee’s Diamond DeShields led all scorers, with a game-high 24 points. After the game, Boyette said that considering the difficulty of shutting down a player with DeShields’ ability, it was important that the Texas defense kept the rest of the Vols from putting up big offensive numbers.

“Whether they’re scoring or not, our defense needs to remain solid,” Boyette said. “Diamond is going to get her points, and she did that. We tried to make sure if Diamond is going to score, no one else could.”

Throughout most of the game, the Longhorns struggled from the foul line, connecting on just nine of their first 19 shots. But they were able to reverse their fortunes, and found a shooting eye from the charity stripe that ended up icing the victory over one of the nation’s marquee program, connecting on seven of eight in the last 33 seconds of the game.

“I thought we could win an ugly game, and it was ugly — it was choppy,” Aston said. “It’s exciting for us because we can do better. We can make free throws. We have shot free throws really well this year.”

The Longhorns to action at 7 p.m. Wednesday when take on Mississippi State (tied for No. 8 in the Associated Press poll, No. 10 in the USA Today Coaches poll) at the Frank Erwin Center in a game that will be broadcast nationally on the Longhorn Network.

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