No. 3 Texas Women’s Basketball Beats Kansas 60-46 in Big 12 Opener

After a first half that featured stalwart defenses on both sides of the ball, the Texas Women’s Basketball team jump started its offense with a 20-7 run to start the second half and cruised to 60-46 win over Kansas in its Big 12 conference opener at the Erwin Center on Saturday night.

“We looked a little bit tentative in the first half,” head coach Karen Aston said. “We sort of re-grouped ourselves in the second half. Our older players kind of settled us down and I thought our bench play was really good tonight. Everyone that came off the bench gave us something, whether it be a block, a big bucket or a defensive stop. It was a team effort, for sure.”

With the win the No. 3 Longhorns remain undefeated this season and now have a 12-0 record (1-0 Big 12). Aston attributed that tentativeness of the team to [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] their anxiousness surrounding the start of Big 12 play.

“This [first Big 12 game] is a hard game to play especially when you’re expected to win,” Aston said. “You look at the scores across the board and they’re going to get lower because everyone is well coached and they know each other.”

Juniors Empress Davenport and Brady Sanders initiated the 20-7 second half run as they split the first 12 points of a 12-6 scoring run through the first five minutes of the second half evenly between themselves.

“They looked much better than they were in the first half,” Aston said. “Brady looked nervous to me. Not nervous like ‘I’m scared of this’. Nervous like ‘I want to do well.’… This is a team that really wants to win. I thought they just relaxed and just played the way they know how to play.”

The run put Texas up 40-31 at the 14:11 mark. From their the Longhorns extended their lead to 17 points in large part thanks to six points in the paint from sophomore Nekia Jones.

Davenport led the Longhorns with 13 points, followed by Enemkpali with 12 and Sanders with 10. The team had nine players score points and both Aston and Davenport said the team depth played a key role in the win.

“That’s the beauty of this team, we have so much depth they don’t know what’s going to hit them,” Davenport said.

To Aston, Krystle Henderson, who only scored one point, played a key role in the win.

“[She] gave us great energy,” Aston said. “She defended really well, the way you’re supposed to. You look at her line and it doesn’t look like that big of deal but I thought she was really really significant.”

Much of the first half played out as a defensive battle between the two squads. By just allowing Texas to score 28 points the Jayhawks (9-5, 0-1 Big 12) held Texas its lowest first half total of the season. While the Longhorns held the Jayhawks to their second lowest first half total in the first half of the season. Texas had five blocked shots– including three by senior Nneka Enemkpali alone– in the first half.

On the game Enemkpali recorded her sixth straight double-double as she scored 12 points, and had 14 rebounds, along with her three blocks and a steal.

The Longhorns kept the game close in the first half in-large part thanks to their nine fast break point in the first half. The Longhorns totalled 15 fast break points in the game, and held the Jayhawks to no fast break points.

Defense played a key role for the Longhorns throughout the game. Texas held Kansas to a 36.7 field goal percentage on the game. The Longhorns out-rebounded Kansas 39-31.

The Longhorns continue Big 12 play at home against West Virginia on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] [article-offer] [/s2If]

Sponsored By: