Game #30: Texas (17-12, 6-9) at No. 14/16 Texas A&M (22-5, 12-3)
Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007 · 6 p.m. CT
Reed Arena (cap. 12,500), College Station, Texas
Game Day Information & Quick Facts
TV: FSN (Bill Land, play-by-play; Dan Hughes, color commentator)
RADIO: KVET 1300 AM- Texas; KZNE-AM 1150 (A&M)
Teams at A Glance
National Rankings: Texas is not ranked in the AP or USA Today/ESPN Polls; Texas A&M is ranked No.14 (AP) and No. 16 in the USA Today/ESPN Poll
Texas Head Coach Jody Conradt (Baylor '63): 38th year overall: 1,204 games: 899-305 (.747); 31st year at Texas: 1,025 games: 782-243 (.763)
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair (Texas Tech '72): 22nd year overall: 689 games: 478-211 (.694); 4th year at Texas A&M: 118 games: 70-48 (.599)
All-Time Series Record: 71st meeting: Texas leads the series, 58-12
Texas' Home/Away/Neutral Record vs. Texas A&M: 28-3 at home; 23-6 away; 7-3 at neutral site
Series Win Streak: +1, Texas
Last Meeting: No. 22/24 Texas 64, No. 17/18 Texas A&M 45 (Jan. Conradt All-Time vs. Texas A&M: 55-15
Texas A&M Tickets: 1-888-99-AGGIE. Tickets can also be purchased at the Reed Arena Box Office and Kyle Field Ticket Office Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (CT)
Tonight's Teams
The Longhorns (17-12, 6-9) and Aggies (22-5, 12-3) close out the regular season schedule tonight in State Farm Lone Star Showdown competition .... TAMU is tied for the Big 12 lead with Oklahoma, and the Sooner and third-place Baylor (24-5, 11-4) meet at 8 p.m. tonight at OU ... Texas, in a three-way tie for seventh in the league, is coming off a 59-47 victory over Texas Tech on Sunday, a win which snapped UT's five-game losing streak - the longest losing string in the program's 33-year history ... Texas was led by the redshirt freshmen duo of 6-1 forward Earnesia Williams (17 points) and 5-7 point guard Carla Cortijo (six points, career-highs of nine rebounds and 13 assists) ... Based on the final two days of regular season Big 12 action, the Longhorns will earn either the 7th, 8th or 9th seed in the upcoming Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship next week in Oklahoma City ... Texas A&M has won its three two games, defeating No. 14 Baylor, 63-58, in its last game on Sunday.
This will be the 71st meetings between these two long-time opponents, with Texas leading the series, 58-12... Texas is 8-2 in the last 10 meetings, with TAMU winning both contests last year before UT broke the Aggies win streak with a 64-45 upset win over TAMU on Jan.21 in Austin. .. Since that Jan. 21st win, however, the Longhorns have gone 3-7; the Aggies, in contrast, are 9-1.
Conradt Closes in on 900- at 899
Already the No. 2 all-time winningest men's OR women's college basketball coach in history, Jody Conradt needs ONE more victory to join the illustrious 900-victory plateau... Only one collegiate hoops coach has registered 900-plus wins- Tennessee's Pat Summitt (with 940).
Texas on the Road this Year
Texas faces an Aggie squad which stands a perfect 15-0 at Reed Arena this year... The Longhorns stand 4-7 away from Austin this season, going 3-7 in away games and 1-0 at a neutral site .... In Big 12 action, Texas is 2-5 on the road.
Texas Vs. the Top 25 This Year
Texas is 3-6 against the Top 25 to date, with all three victories coming in Austin over No. 10 Purdue (64-61, Jan. 7), over No. 17/18 Texas A&M (64-45, Jan. 21) and over No 9/8 Oklahoma (67-62, Jan. 31).
Williams Heating Up
UT 6-1 redshirt freshman forward Earnesia Williams has scored in double-figures four straight games - for the first time this year ... In the last four games, Williams has collected 57 points and 18 rebounds to average 14.3 ppg and 4.5 rpg while shooting 9-for-12 from the free throw line ... Williams has been in double-digit scoring 11 times, second-best on the squad ... She averages 9.5 ppg overall and 9.7 ppg in Big 12 scoring, ranking second to senior Tiffany Jackson in both stats.
Cortijo Dishing it Off in Career Fashion
UT's 5-7 redshirt freshman point guard Carla Cortijo, who is second in league assists (5.8), dished out 22 assists in two games last week while scoring 17 points, 15 rebounds and six steals in a 1-1 week for Texas... Cortijo had an impressive assist-turnover ratio in the two games, with 22 assists and only four turnovers (two per game), as she played 78 of a possible 80 minutes on the floor... In a 59-47 win over Texas Tech (Feb. 24), Cortijo dished out a career-high 13 assists - the most by a UT player since 2000 - and just missed a double-double as she had a career-high nine rebounds to go with six points and two steals as well.
Against Oklahoma State earlier in the week, Cortijo had 11 points, six rebounds and tied her then-career high with nine assists, playing all 40 minutes.... Cortijo is UT's assist leader with 131 (4.9 apg) while averaging 7.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game ... Cortijo also ranks No. 2 in league assists (5.80), is third in assist/turnover ratio (1.53, 5.8 apg, 3.8 to's/game) and fourth in steals average (1.87).
Jackson's Career Numbers Grow
Against Oklahoma State on Feb. 21, All-America candidate and 6-3 senior Tiffany Jackson registered the 1,000th rebound of her career with her sixth and final board of the game with 49 seconds to go ... Jackson became just the FOURTH person in UT basketball history to log 1,000-plus rebounds and currrently has 1,009... Andrea Lloyd (1,115, 1983-87) stands third in career rebounding ... Jackson also is No. 4 in Texas career steals with 306 and stands No. 5 in Texas career scoring with 1,870 points, 113 points shy of the No. 4 spot.
With her 1,870 points and 1,009 rebounds, Jackson is the first player in UT's history to collect more than 1,800 points and pull down 1,000-plus rebounds ... The next closest is Retha Swindell, who played from 1975-70 and finished her career with 1,795 points and a school-record 1,759 rebounds.
Jackson's Big 12 Numbers
Among all Big 12 players, Jackson is No. 5 in career steals - NINE shy of the No. 4 spot held by Baylor's Sophia Young who had 315 from 2003-06 ... In career rebounding, her 1,009 boards places her No. 6 among all-time Big 12 players - with former Oklahoma forward Caton Hill fifth all-time (1,052 boards from 2000-04).
Texas Stat Leaders
All-America candidate and 6-3 senior F Tiffany Jackson continues as Texas' scoring (16.9 ppg), rebounding (8.9 rpg), blocks (1.2) and steals (2.52) leader ... UT's second-leading scorer is redshirt freshman F Earnesia Williams (9.5 ppg) ... Williams is followed by three players averaging 7.3 ppg: junior G Erneisha Bailey, freshman PG Carla Cortijo and freshman G Brittainey Raven ... Cortijo leads the way in assists (with 131) for a 4.85 apg average ... Bailey is second in rebounding (5.4), followed by Cortijo (4.6) and Williams (4.1 rpg)... The Longhorns are outscoring the opposition by +6.2 ppg (64.6 ppg to opponents' 58.3) and hold a +1.4 rebounds per game edge (38.5 to 37.1 rpg).
Texas & Texas A&M in the NCAA Stats
The Longhorns as a team are ranked in the top 52 in three categories - 34th in blocks per game (4.7), 44th in scoring defense (allowing 58.3 ppg) and 52nd steals (10.4).
The Aggies rank 29th or higher in six categories, standing No. 7 nationally in scoring defense (allowing 53.5 ppg), 13th in 3-point percentage (.377), 21st in scoring margin (+13.7), No. 26 in W-L percentage (.815) and 28th in assists (16.1 apg).
Texas-Texas A&M Series
Tonight's game marks the 71st game in the Texas-Texas A&M series, which is the second longest series in Texas women's basketball history ... The longest series is the UT-Texas Tech series which is at 75 games... Texas leads that series with the Lady Raiders, 53-22.
In all-time games against A&M, the Longhorns stand 58-12... Texas had its seven-game series win streak broken last year when the Aggies won both games (73-53 on Feb. 8 in Austin, and 79-67 (Feb. 22 at College Station) prior to Texas upsetting then No. 17 TAMU on Jan. 21 in Austin of this year ... Texas was by senior Tiffany Jackson's game-highs of 27 points and 14 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season and 14 points from freshman Brittainey Raven... Texas is 15-3 against the Aggies dating back to the 1998-99 campaign ...Prior to last year's Feb. 8th win, the lone A&M victory took place on Feb. 2, 2002, a 70-65 victory at TAMU.
Last year, the Aggies were No. 24 and No. 25, respectively, in the two games, while Texas was unranked ... These were only the second and third times that the two squads meet with Texas unranked and A&M ranked, and tonight will be the fourth time; the only other time that happened was on Feb. 9, 1994 ... The Longhorns hold a 28-3 all-time record in Austin against the Aggies... In games played at College Station, UT stands 23-6, and is 6-3 in the last nine games in Aggieland; at neutral sites, Texas is 7-3 against TAMU.
Get Early Lead, To The Boards & to FT Line to Win
Through 29 games, the Longhorns have been successful when crashing the boards, getting to the free throw line and taking a halftime lead- except for the Nebraska game.... Texas is 12-3 when out-rebounding the opposition and 5-9 when being out-rebounded ... The wins when out-rebounded came against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Oregon State, Purdue (a 40-39 Purdue advantage), Missouri (36-33) and Colorado (40-37), while UT out-rebounded Nebraska (41-29) and Oklahoma State (45-43, Feb. 21) and Kansas (43-37) but lost.
The Longhorns are 15-5 when leading at the half (exceptions: Nebraska, Baylor, Texas Tech, Kansas and last Oklahoma State games, when UT led at the half but lost), and are 2-7 when trailing at the break ...UT is 15-5 when it shoots more- and makes more- free throws than the opposition.
Next Up: 2007 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship Next Week
The 12-team 2007 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship takes place next week (Tuesday-Thursday and Friday, March 6-8 and 10) at Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City, Okla. ... The seedings and pairings for the tourney will be announced on Thursday (March 1) evening following the final two games of the regular season which are played that night.
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