By Blanche Schaefer
AUSTIN, Texas — A top-20 matchup between conference rivals turned into everything it was hyped up to be when No. 4 Texas took down No. 19 Oklahoma, 83-76, Saturday afternoon at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin.
“It was a really good home win for our team,” Texas head coach Karen Aston said. “I never feel like (the players) don’t think they can win and that they aren’t going to make the plays that it takes. So that is a mark of a good team, and I am proud of them.”
With the victory, the Longhorns improved to 18-1 overall and 7-1 against Big 12 teams, and now have[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] 999 victories in the history of the program. While Aston said she was pleased with the victory, she was quick to point out that the ‘Horns still have much on which to work — especially ball security. Texas turned the ball over 25 times and gave up 27 points off turnovers.
“We obviously need to look at film and try to clean up – in particular – the turnovers,” Aston said. “We fouled too much, and we allowed way too many paint points.”
Four Longhorns scored in double digits, led by senior center Imani Boyette, who had 18 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocks, and senior guard Empress Davenport, who also scored 18 points. Guards Ariel Atkins and Lashann Higgs each scored 11 points.
UT also allowed 36 points in the paint, including a game-high 23 by Oklahoma sophomore center Vionise Pierre-Louis.
Boyette came three blocks shy of a triple-double and was lauded as the best center in women’s college basketball by Aston and Oklahoma head coach Sherri Coale. Despite her performance and the high praise, Boyette said she is not fully satisfied with her performance.
“I appreciate the compliment, but I think I have a long way to go to live up to that,” Boyette said. “I pride myself on my defense. It’s cool to get seven blocked shots, but it’s not cool when the person playing across from you is getting 20 points. That’s just not something I do, and I need to be solid for my teammates.”
A back-and-forth first quarter resulted in a 16-16 knot. Higgs sparked a a 15-2 run in the second quarter to help UT build a 32-20 lead and head to the locker room with a 43-34 lead when Atkins scored after grabbing the rebound off a missed three-pointer by sophomore guard Brooke McCarty.
The Longhorns wasted no time putting up points in the third quarter and maintained a double-digit lead throughout most of the quarter, but an 8-2 OU spurt trimmed the score to 56-48 with 3:17 to go in the period. Oklahoma then scored seven unanswered points to pull within four, 62-58, at the buzzer.
Oklahoma junior guard T’ona Edwards took off for a fast-break layup 45 seconds into the fourth quarter, and suddenly the Sooners were within two, at 62-60. But Davenport and Boyette scored a combined 12 points to close the quarter and finish the 83-76 victory for Texas.
“We didn’t get rattled, and that’s what I really liked about (today’s win),” McCarty said. “When Oklahoma started coming back and they started getting stops and we weren’t, we just kind of stayed calm. We just told each other that we’ve got each other.”
UT has a chance to earn its 1,000th program win at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Austin against Kansas. The Longhorns then hit the road for a Jan. 30 game against Kansas State and a Feb. 6 matchup with Iowa State.
[/s2If]
[s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]
[article-offer]
[/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.