The women’s basketball team dominated the University of Arkansas-Little Rock 60-26 on [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] Wednesday night at the Erwin Center.
“As Mack Brown would say, you are always happy to get a win,” coach Karen Aston said. “I’m particularly happy that we are starting to share the basketball better…And the fact that we came off of the Virgin Islands trip, and a tough week academically, and we were able to focus.”
The Longhorns (6-2) lead the Trojans the entire game, with their smallest lead of the game when Texas lead 6-3 in the early going. From there the Horns cruised to a 25-5 lead and an eventual 30-10 lead at the half.
Holding the Trojans (3-3) to 10 points in the first half is the least points the Longhorns have allowed in the first half this season.
In the second half the game played much the same leading to the Longhorns eventual 60-26 win. The Longhorns had a 43.1 field goal percentage and held the Trojans to just 19.2% from the field in the game.
Freshman Kelsey Lang and senior Chassidy Fussell lead the Longhorn scoring with 12 points apiece.
“I’ve been working really hard in practice and my teammates have been helping me out,” Lang said. “I just like to go out there and do the best I can. I hope I do that every night.”
Starting just her third game for the Horns, Lang admitted she was surprised by how much she has been able to contribute, but that she’s happy she can add depth at the post position for the team. Aston said she wasn’t surprised at Lang’s success in early on as she showed she could play at this level in practice.
“I saw very early in practice that she was going to help us,” Aston said. “She plays very calm and very level. She caught on extremely quick in practice, so what’s she’s doing in the games does not surprise me.”
Guard Empress Davenport lead the Longhorns on the boards with 11 rebounds in the game.
“My coach Travis [Mays] has emphasized that I rebound more, as part of my role,” Davenport said. “I’ve just been trying to key in on rebounding more to help the team win.”
The game had some sentimental value for Aston, as a college student she played at Arkansas-Little Rock, and as high school coach UALR coach Joe Foley was a mentor to her.
“I have looked up to him my entire career,” Aston said. “So just to be on the other side from him is an honor to me. I think he’s one of the best coaches in the country quite honestly.”
The team has played four games in the past seven days.
“I think we need to re-energize our batteries a little bit,” Aston said. “Especially as we head to Tennessee we need to get our energy level extremely high, because there’s will be.”
The Longhorns travel to Knoxville to face No. 3 Tennessee on Saturday at 12 p.m.. That game will air on Fox Sports South. Last year when the Volunteers came to Austin the Horns lost 94-75. Both Tennessee and Texas have historically been known as powers in women’s basketball so the game has been a high profile game in the past, and Aston said the game is circled on the calendar because of the tradition.
“We want it to get back to a high profile game like it was when Jody [Conradt] and Pat [Summitt] were coaching,” Aston said. “When you go up there its a terrific environment for women’s basketball.”
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