By Steve Habel, Senior Editor
AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas women’s basketball team has notions of making a lot of noise in this year’s NCAA tournament and started that process with a dominating, if uneven, 78-50 win over Central Arkansas in a first-round game Friday afternoon at the Frank Erwin Center.
Junior guard Brooke McCarty led a balanced Texas attack with 15 points as the Longhorns jumped on Central Arkansas in the early minutes and cruised to the victory.
The third-seeded Longhorns, who finished [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]second in the Big 12 Conference and lost in the semifinals of the league tournament, moves on to face sixth-seeded North Carolina State —a 62-48 winner over No. 11 Auburn earlier Friday — Sunday in Austin.
UT’s 28-point margin of victory doubled up N.C. State’s margin, but the Longhorns were far from pleased about their overall performance in which they committed 21 turnovers and get outscored by the upstart Sugar Bears in the third quarter.
“Turnovers are always a concern because, at this time of the year, there’s such a value that you have to have for the basketball and for possessions,” Texas coach Karen Aston said. “We went through a long period of time this year where I thought we’d really cleaned up the turnover issue, and then the last couple of games we’ve played, we’ve had some uncharacteristic turnovers. But I think most of them are from lack of patience.
“In the first half, we looked dramatically improved in that area. Even though we had some turnovers, some of them were from excitement from the game and from just getting out there. So I could sort of forgive some of those in the first half because I thought our flow was really good.”
The game was over almost as soon as it started as Central Arkansas missed eight of its first nine shots in the first four-and-a-half minutes and trailed, 18-2. Two free throws by freshman UT guard Jada Underwood with 0.8 seconds left in the first quarter granted the Longhorns a 24-4 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Texas outshot Central Arkansas, 75 percent to 15.4 percent, in the opening period and outrebounded the Sugar Bears, 13-2.
“Wow — that’s not how we wanted to go out and perform today,” Central Arkansas coach Sandra Rushing said afterward. “Texas – they’re big, they’re fast, stronger. I just want people to know that nobody up here or anybody in the locker room is happy with our performance, effort-wise. Maybe we’re a little nervous. Maybe I didn’t do a good job preparing them, but that does not define our season.”
Joyner Holmes added 12 points and Kelsey Lang scored 10 for the Longhorns (24-8) as all 11 Texas players scored at least four points. The Longhorns outshot Central Arkansas 51.7 percent to 31.7 percent and had a 55-23 rebounding edge.
Central Arkansas, the Southland Conference champion, was led by guard Maggie Proffitt’s 17 points. Taylor Baudoin added 14 points for the Sugar Bears (26-5), all in the second half.
Central Arkansas showed more fight in the second quarter when it played the Longhorns to within eight points, but Texas still led, 48-20, at intermission after Underwood’s putback basket at the buzzer.
Proffitt hit for 10 points and was the only player for either team to score in double figures in the first half. Texas got eight points each from Lang and McCarty, as 10 of the 11 players who took the floor for the Longhorns in the first half scored.
Each team took 30 shots in the first half. Texas made 19 of its attempts (63.3 percent) while UCA made only nine (30 percent). The Longhorns also owned a 27-8 rebounding advantage over the first 20 minutes of play.
Central Arkansas kept up its tepid comeback in the third quarter, outscoring the Longhorns, 23-14, and pulling to within 62-43, the closest it had been since the final minute of the first quarter. Texas allowed the Sugar Bears to hang around as they shot just 33.3 percent in the quarter while committing six turnovers.
“We came out and really executed the game plan and listened to our coaches,” McCarty said. “That all flowed over from practices. We did have a letdown in the second half and we kind of got away from what got us off to a good start in the first place. So I think we just have to maintain that energy for 40 minutes.”
Aston said the Longhorns will have to play a more complete game to beat North Carolina State, which is likely better that its seeding suggests.
“Our focus has to be better — we ebb and flow with our focus,” Aston said. “When we’re good, like we were in the first half, then you’re pleased with that. I understand we’re going to have things go wrong. I’m not trying to say we have to play a perfect game, but we can’t go through a stretch of five minutes without guarding and not taking care of the ball.
“We’re at that place now where you can’t have a stretch of poor play. N.C. State is a terrific basketball team. I know they probably feel like they were not seeded fairly, and I might agree. We have to be more disciplined offensively. If something isn’t there, we just need to be patient about reversing it and looking for other options. It’s going to be a really good basketball game.”
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