Texas Women’s Basketball wins 7th straight home game and improves to 3-2 in Big 12 play with 70-58 win over Kansas.
By James Schleicher
Texas rested much of its offense on the shoulders on Imani McGee-Stafford, the sophomore led the team with 24 point and 10 rebounds, as the Longhorns used a balanced attack to cruise past [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] Kansas 70-58 in front of a crowd of 2,625 Wednesday night at the Erwin Center.
McGee-Stafford attributed the outstanding performance to work in practice carrying over to the game.
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“Our coaches have been stressing in practice to take a shot if I have a shot,” McGee-Stafford said. “So that was kind of my goal today, to take a shot if I had it, and it worked out.”
Head coach Karen Aston thought when McGee-Stafford gets one-on-one coverage like she did for much of the game, that she should be able to produce those kinds of numbers on the regular basis.
“I thought she had a mindset from the very get-go that she was going to have a presence tonight,” Aston said.
With McGee-Stafford dominance down low as well as the other forward players Texas had 36 points in the paint to Kansas’ 24.
“We played Santa Claus at Target and let them sit in our lap and score the ball,” Henrickson said. “Texas was aggressive they got us on the boards, they got us on the glass.”
The Longhorns dominated the boards throughout the game as they pulled down 43 rebound (22 off., and 21 def.).
The Longhorns had eight other scorers in addition to McGee-Stafford, but she represented the lone Longhorn in double figures. Freshmen Nekia Jones showed that she could score down low and outside as she contributed nine points, including a 3-pointer.
“Anytime your number’s called, you’re happy to get out there and compete,” Jones said. “You just have to treat every minute like it’s going to be your last and that’s what I did.”
Empress Davenport and Nneka Enemkpali each helped Texas with eight points.
The Longhorns shot 47.1% from the field in the first half, but the hit just 37.5% from the field in the second half to finish the game with a 42.4 field goal percentage for the game.
Defensively Texas held the Jayhawks a 46.2% field goal percentage from. Texas ability to take more shots also played a key role. Texas had 66 shots to Kansas’ 52.
The win improved Texas’ Big 12 record to 3-2, and it’s overall record to 12-5. Last year Texas had just 12 wins in the season at the end of the year. Having already won 12 this season with the majority of conference play remaining Aston said her team has grown dramatically.
“It’s maturity, and honestly it’s practice habits,” Aston said. “You have to understand coming off a loss that you have to get in and get prepared for the next game. We’re more confident for sure.”
The Longhorns have won all three of their conference home games, but lost on the two on the road. Texas makes a short road trip to TCU on the 19th, before having a short break and returning home to play West Virginia. The Horns lost to the Mountaineer 56-49 in overtime on Jan 12th, so they will look to seek revenge when they play WVU on the Jan. 25th.
NOTE
After missing four games due to an injury Chassidy Fussell returned to the Texas lineup against Kansas. Fussell had seven points and two rebounds in the game.
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