Texas women’s basketball awaits Texas Tech, Kansas State

By Riley Zayas

AUSTIN, Texas — “Your preparation in practice builds your confidence,” Texas women’s basketball head coach Karen Aston said. “You don’t just walk on to the court on gameday and become a confident player or team. You have to build that in practice and I do feel like we’re doing a better job [with that]. We’ve kind of reset ourselves since the loss [to TCU].”

The Longhorns stumbled in their first Big 12 game, a 65-63 loss to TCU, but rebounded with a victory at Iowa State before gettng knocked off Sunday by West Virginia, 66-63, in a game that came down to the final seconds. Now 1-2 in conference play, the Horns are hoping the odds will turn in their favor this week, especially in the close games that occur so often in conference play.

Texas[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] returns to the Erwin Center for a Wednesday night duel against the Texas Tech Red Raiders before another road game Sunday against the Kansas State Wildcats.

The Lady Raiders had one of the best starts to the 2019-20 season of any team in the country, going 10-0 in non-conference play, including a victory over Ole Miss. While they didn’t have a particularly strong strength of schedule, Tech showed just a glimpse of what they could be as they entered into conference play. But Iowa State came into Lubbock and stunned the Lady Raiders with a surprising 96-66 win to begin Big 12 play, putting a major dent in their apparent invincibility. Tech then got by TCU, 80-76, in a game that could have gone either way. Most recently, the Lady Raiders took another conference loss, falling to Kansas State, 76-72.

Because just one Texas Tech player stands taller than six feet, the Lady Raiders rely more on speed and deep shooting to win games — a formula that can lead to important victories, but also to tough losses when the shooting goes cold.

For the most part, though, this strategy has worked in the Lady Raiders’ favor as they have shot 32 percent from three-point range and 47 percent from the field this season, with the offense guiding them to victories early on. In addition, they are extremely quick on defense and in the transition game, averaging 9.8 steals per game, and 20.6 points off turnovers. While their quickness on defense has transferred into points on the offensive end, it also has become a liability; Tech playing a zone defense the majority of the time gave Kansas State multiple open threes and allowed the Wildcats to get the ball inside, which was a major reason for the Lady Raiders’ loss Saturday.

The Longhorns played well against zone defenses throughout the year, and will look to beat it again by getting the ball to the middle of the paint to their post players, who have a serious height advantage over the Lady Raiders.

While Texas Tech doesn’t have a whole lot of height in the post, the Lady Raiders do have one player, 6-foot-5 Brittany Brewer, who has been their go-to short-range shooter on multiple occasions this season. Brewer, who will battle it out against UT’s Charli Collier and Joyner Holmes, leads the team in rebounds (102), blocks (72) and ranks third in shooting percentage (50 percent).

The Horns’ next opponent is the Kansas State Wildcats. K-State’s victory Saturday over Tech was its sixth straight Big 12 road win — a tie for the longest road winning streak in conference history. On the road or at home, the Wildcats have been tough to beat, and while a 7-6 overall record may seem average, four of those losses have come against top-25 teams. With a 1-1 conference record, KSU will start the week with Oklahoma State before facing off against Texas Sunday afternoon.

Kansas State head coach Jeff Mittie, who took over the program in 2014, has led a slow progression to better results each season, by first taking the team to the WNIT before they finally making it to the NCAA tournament in 2015. Last season marked the third appearance in the tournament during Mittie’s tenure. Two of the players on last year’s team, sophomore Christianna Carr and senior Angela Harris, are hoping to lead their team back to the tournament this season. Carr has been their top deep-range shooter, knocking down 34 percent of her three-point attempts, including five against Oral Roberts early in the year. Harris, on the other hand, has been the primary point guard for the Wildcats, and has helped with their quick passing attack, which has been tough for defenses to stop all season, such as in the victory over Texas Tech.

Head coach Karen Aston is determined to help her team avoid mental lapses this upcoming week, as the Horns (9-6 overall and 1-2 in Big 12 games) don’t want to lose in another close ballgame. The answer? Aston said she believes it lies in playing with a high level of effort for the entire game, not just two or three quarters.

“I’m proud of our team for coming back,” said Aston following the West Virginia loss, “but I have no explanation for why we didn’t show up for almost two-and-a-half quarters.”
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