Texas women’s basketball falls at home to Baylor, 64-44

By Steve Lansdale
Senior writer / editor

AUSTIN, Texas — Anyone who wonders why coaches stress the need for their teams to put together “four strong quarters” need only watch Friday’s game between the Texas women’s basketball team and No. 2/1 Baylor. After heading to the locker room trailing the Bears by just five points, the Longhorns were outscored, 23-5, in the third quarter, leading to a 64-44 home loss at the Frank Erwin Center.

The setback dropped UT’s record to 14-7 overall and 6-3 in Big 12 games, while Baylor improved to 19-1 overall and 8-0 in games against conference opponents.

Guard Lashann Higgs [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]had 10 points for the Longhorns, while Joanne Allen-Taylor and Sug Sutton added 9 each. Allen-Taylor was arguably UT’s most dangerous offensive threat, scoring all of her points on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the three-point line.

Charli Collier pulled down a game-high 16 rebounds for the Longhorns, but Texas still lost the battle of the boards, 50-40.

Coaches often insist that every game includes surges by both teams, and Texas head coach Karen Aston said after the game that she was disappointed in the way her team reacted to the push by the Bears after the intermission.

“I thought Baylor punched us in the third quarter and we didn’t respond very well,” Aston said. “They found the mismatches, so I thought they did a good job at that. We don’t have a lot of depth in the paint and I thought we got really passive and didn’t take the punch very well.”

Queen Egbo led Baylor with 17 points, followed by DiDi Richards, who added 16 for the Bears, whose top scorer, Nalyssa Smith, was limited to just 11 minutes while recovering from a sprained ankle.

Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said after the game that her team’s superior depth was a critical factor in the outcome.

“I’d like to tell you defense, because I think they only scored 20 points in the second half and five in the third, but really I’d have to go back and look at film and ask if it was our defense or just poor shooting by them,” she said when asked about the cause of the lopsided third quarter. “We’re grinding wins out until we can get (forward) Nalyssa Smith. This kid right here (Didi Richards) and Moon Ursin coming off the bench are warriors, and they can start in any program in America. But Nalyssa has a high-ankle sprain and I started her tonight because we have to get her in a groove. But you know, she’s dying to get out there to play and she’s that kind of kid. But, just keep grinding; we have that kind of talent and we have enough experience to just keep doing it until we get everybody on the floor healthy.”

While disappointed with the loss, Aston found reason for optimism, lauding her team’s preparedness and effort, if not its offensive execution.

“I really thought that our team was ready to play,” Aston said. “I think that the first half was an indicator that our defense was really good, but shot selection was really poor. We just couldn’t ever get to a place where we were comfortable reversing the basketball. I think we settled way too much for long twos, and jumpers that were contested instead of ball reversal which probably would have given us a little more offensive confidence in the first half.”

The Longhorns have just over a week to regroup before their next game, a 1 p.m. matchup Feb. 9 at Texas Tech that will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
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