Women’s basketball cuts down No. 1 Stanford

By Riley Zayas

AUSTIN, Texas — It had been 15 years and 22 days since the Texas women’s basketball team took down a team ranked atop the Associated Press poll.

Sunday the Longhorns had quite the day, taking down visiting No.1 Stanford with a loud and raucous fanbase behind them.

Texas, which improved to 7-4, toppled No. 1 Stanford, in a 69-64 victory, is one of the most exciting women’s basketball games ever to be played on the Forty Acres. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]

The unranked Longhorns came in at 6-4 while the 10-0 Cardinal had multiple wins over top 25 teams.

“I think that our team had a confidence about themselves that we started the game with, but the thing that I’m most proud of is they’re beginning to learn how to play 40 minutes,” Texas head coach Karen Aston said after the game. “They reset themselves when things don’t go well.”

After the lead had changed hands multiple times in the final few minutes, Texas was up, 67-64, with five seconds left and the Cardinal with the ball. Attempting to keep their team’s perfect season alive, the Stanford coaches drew up a play to shoot the potential game-winning three-pointer, but UT forward Joyner Holmes stood in the way, stealing the inbound pass and swiftly dribbling down to the hoop and for a layup at the buzzer, sealing an amazing upset victory.

““They’re learning to help each other and not depend on the coaches as much. I think that’s
where we’ve sort of turned the corner,” Aston said. “Again, it’s one win. It’s a big one. There’s no question about it. Stanford is really, really good.”

From the outset, Aston’s team was ready to play. Freshman Celeste Taylor fired up the entire Texas crowd with an early three to start the scoring and quickly her teammates followed suit. The early confidence on offense transferred to their defense, as they limited the 11th-ranked scoring offense in the country to just 16 points in the first quarter, and a mere 10 in the second as Texas was in control 35-26 at halftime.

Aggressive play from Joyner and fellow forward Charli Collier led the way for the Longhorns throughout the first half as Holmes had nine points and six rebounds while Collier had four points with 11 rebounds before the break. Collier finished with 20 points and Joyner had 13 and eight in the win.

In the second half, that confidence and momentum only strengthened, and could be seen when Collier hit threes on two of UT’s first three possessions.

In the fourth quarter, Holmes took a bounce pass and leaped toward the rim for a layup and got tied up with a Stanford player and crashed to the court, writhing in pain as fans stood in shock. After several moments, the Longhorns’ key forward was helped to the locker room and it looked as if Texas would have to finish this upset bid without her. However, Holmes emerged from the tunnel with five minutes left in game, and promptly checked in, spurring cheers and applause across the arena as her presence was abundantly apparent during the final play of the game.

Guard Sug Sutton (12 points, four assists) sealed the win with two free throws with four seconds left to sew up the victory. Taylor finished with 10 points and Lashann Higgs added eight.

At one point during a timeout, a video was played asking Texas players what was the best Christmas gift they ever received. Video games, bikes and phones were among the most popular, but after watching the team shower Aston with a bucket of Gatorade, this win over Stanford gave some a new one.

“We beat the No. 1 team,” Holmes said. “Merry Christmas!”

The Horns won on the boards as Texas had 48 rebounds, 19 of those offensive, compared to Stanford’s 42 — thanks in large part to Collier’s season-high19. Playing man-to-man on defense, the Horns forced the Cardinal into bad shots and generated 11 turnovers, nine steals and two blocked shots as ultimately it was the aggressiveness from Texas that wore out Stanford.

“I think the name of the game was the fact that they were more aggressive than we were,” said Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer. “I think we learned an important lesson from that loss.”

Now on a three-game win streak, the team gets a well-deserved break before returning to the Erwin Center next Sunday to square off at 1 p.m. against Northwestern State. After that, the crucial conference games begin, starting with a Jan. 3 showdown against TCU.

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