#21/22 Texas (3-2) vs. UAB (2-3)
at the Jack in the Box Wahine Classic - 5th-Place Game
Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 · 5:10 p.m. Central
Stan Sheriff Center (capacity 10,300) · Honolulu, Hawaii
GAME DAY QUICK FACTS
TELEVISION: None
RADIO: KVET Radio 98.1 FM (Central Texas): Chad Hastings, pxp; Carol Ross, color analyst
INTERNET VIDEO: None
LIVE STATS: None
GAME DAY INFORMATION
In the National Rankings: Texas is No. 21, Associated Press Top 25 (media poll) & No. 22, USA Today/ESPN Preseason Poll (coaches poll) ... UAB is not ranked
Texas Head Coach Gail Goestenkors (Saginaw Valley State '85): 16th year overall: 500 games: 399-101 (.798); first year at Texas: 3-2 (.600)
UAB Head Coach Audra Smith (Virginia '92): 4th year overall as head coach, all years at UAB: 93 games: 42-51 (.452)
All-Time Series Record: First meeting
Jack in the Box Wahine Classic
Day One Results- Nov. 23
Hartford 83, UAB 74
Hawai`i 85, Lipscomb 51
Virginia 86, No. 21 Texas 83
Minnesota 92, Kentucky 80
Day Two Results- Nov. 24
Consolation Bracket:
UAB 67, Lipscomb 51
No. 21 Texas 72, Kentucky 60
Championship Bracket:
Virginia 73, Minnesota 62
Hartford 76, Hawai`i 63
Day Three- Championship Round- Nov. 25
7th Place Game: Lipscomb (1-5) vs. Kentucky (2-3), 3:00 p.m.
5th Place Game: UAB (2-3) vs. Texas (3-2), 5:10 p.m.
3rd Place Game: Hawai`i (3-2) vs. Minnesota (6-1), 7:20 p.m.
Championship: Hartford (5-1) vs. Virginia (5-2), 9:30 p.m.
A Glance at Today's Teams
Both Texas and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) are 1-1 in the Jack in the Box Wahine Classic as they enter the fifth-place game this afternoon ... Texas holds a 3-2 record overall, while UAB, from Conference USA, is 2-3 ... Under first-year head coach Gail Goestenkors, Texas is ranked No. 21 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll (the media poll) and No. 22 in this week's USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, the same positions UT held last week ... In Wahine Classic consolation second round play, Texas snapped a two-game losing streak with a 72-60 victory over Kentucky (2-3) in Goestenkors' 500th career game as head coach ... Texas had lost at No. 1 Tennessee 92-67 last Sunday (Nov. 18) before suffering a tough 86-83 setback to Virginia in Friday's Wahine Classic first round matchup ... UAB is under the direction of fourth-year head coach Audra Smith ... At the Wahine Classic, UAB lost to Hartford, 83-74 before beating Lipscomb (67-51).
Texas and UAB's first-round foes - Virginia and Hartford - will play for the Wahine Classic championship later Sunday.
This is the fourth of four consecutive games on the road for UT ...Texas posted season-opening wins at home against Missouri State (92-55, Nov. 11) and Lamar (94-35, Nov. 15) before traveling to Knoxville, Tenn. to play the defending NCAA champions and then to the Wahine Classic ... Texas was picked to finish fourth in the highly-competitive Big 12 by vote of the preseason coaches, with the other three teams ahead of the Longhorns all nationally-ranked as well (Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Baylor).
The UAB Blazers, returning nine letterwinners this year, were in a tie with SMU to finish fourth in the Conference USA preseason poll... The top teams in C-USA in the poll were Tulane, defending regular season champion, UTEP and East Carolina ... Last year, UAB was 19-13, tying for second in the C-USA (at 12-4) ... Postseason, UAB advanced to the WNIT Tournament second round.
Goestenkors One Win Shy of 400
Texas head coach Gail Goestenkors is one victory shy of reaching the 400-victory plateau ... Goestenkors is in her first year at UT after building the Duke women's program into a national contender the last 15 years ... Goestenkors' overall record is 399-101 after 500 games - a 79.8 winning percentage ranking No. 3 among all active Division I coaches.
Goestenkors replaced Naismith Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt, who retired last March ... Conradt ranks No. 2 among all men's and women's basketball coaches in all-time victories as she finished her career 900-307 (.746).
That's So Raven
UT 6-0 sophomore guard Brittainey Raven has reached double-figure scoring in all five games to date and leads the Longhorns with a 16.8 ppg average - more than double her scoring average of a year ago ... This is the first time in Raven's UT career that she has five consecutive double-figure scoring games ... As a freshman last year, Raven played in all 32 games with 27 starts and averaged 7.9 points and 2.9 rebounds per contest ... She was in double-digit scoring 10 times, and had three consecutive games with 10-plus points... Raven has been UT's top scorer three times, including a game-high 18 points against Kentucky yesterday... Raven also is first in minutes played (31.2), second in steals (12, 2.4 spg) and third in assists (14, 2.8 apg).
Concluding a Fourth Texas Trip to Wahine Classic
Texas is making its fourth trip to the Wahine Classic, having also played here in 1988, 1999, 2003 ... This is UT's third showing in the last eight years...The three prior trips saw Jody Conradt on the Longhorns sidelines as head coach.... This is Gail Goestenkors first-ever trip to the Wahine Classic as a head coach...With this year's 1-1 Wahine Classic mark, Texas is 9-2 in all-time Wahine Classic games, winning the tourney twice by going 3-0 in both 1988 and 2003 ... UT went 2-1 and finished second to host Hawaii (78-74) in 1999... In 2003, Texas beat Navy in the first round (97-46), then defeated Virginia (74-54) in the second round before beating Montana, 85-46, for the title. Host Hawaii has won the tournament four times (1989, '91, '93 and '99)
Texas-UAB Series
This is the first meeting between these two teams in the sport of women's basketball.
Texas Against the Conference USA
UAB is the only Conference USA squad that Texas will face in regular season play this year ... In all-time games against C-USA teams, Texas is a resounding 124-7, winning 94.7 percent of these contests ... UT is: 2-0 vs. Central Florida, 54-3 vs. Houston, 32-1 vs. Rice, 34-3 vs. SMU, 1-0 vs. UTEP and 1-0 vs. Tulane.
Longhorn Stat Leaders
Six players are averaging 9.0 points per game or above ... Sophomore guard and team co-captain Brittainey Raven leads the way with 16.8 ppg ... Raven has been the lone Longhorn in double-figure scoring in each of the five games and is coming off an a 15-point, 3-rebound, 4-assist game against Virginia and game-high 17-point, 4-rebound game versus Kentucky... Raven also is second in steals (12, 2.4 spg).
Freshman guard Kathleen Nash, last week's Big 12 Co-Rookie of the Week, averages 14.0 ppg and also is second in rebounding (7.0 rpg)... Nash came off the bench in UT's first three games and gained her first starts against Virginia and Kentucky... Against UVA, she netted team-highs of 18 points and three steals ... The 6-2 rangy rookie is impressively hitting 50 percent from long range (9-for-18).
Team co-captain and 6-1 redshirt sophomore Earnesia Williams and 6-4 junior post Ashley Lindsey both average 10.4 ppg ... Williams is 5-for-9 from 3-point range and 9-10 from the free throw line ... Lindsey leads the team in rebounding with 7.2 boards per game ... Lindsey has collected 16 blocks as well (3.2 bpg) and shoots 58 percent from the floor... Rounding out the double-figure scorers is sophomore redshirt point guard Carla Cortijo (10.0 ppg) who leads the squad with 26 assists (5.2 apg average) ... Cortijo had a season-high seven assists against Virginia on Friday ... Cortijo has been clutch from the free throw line, hitting 87 percent of her free throws by going 20-for-23 to start the season.
Senior guard Erneisha Bailey (9.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg) follows ... Texas is out-scoring the opposition by a +16.0 ppg margin (81.6 ppg to 65.6 ppg) and holds a rebound edge as well (+6.2, 41.0 rpg to opponents' 34.8 rpg).
A Look at the Blazers
UAB, 2-3, lost in Wahine Classic first round play to Hartford, 83-74 before rebounding with a second-round consolation win over Lipscomb, 67-51 led by 5-11 senior guard Diamond Rogers' game-highs of 14 points and seven rebounds.
Rogers leads the Blazer offense with 17.8 ppg and also is first in rebounding (6.8 rpg) ... Following her in the stat columns are 5-10 senior guard Crystal McFadden, last week's Conference USA Player of the Week who is averaging 17.0 ppg ... McFadden shoots 56 percent from the field and is solid at the free throw line, making 84.6 percent of her foul shots (22-26) ... Britney Jones, a 5-7 junior, chips in with 14.0 ppg and leads the way in assists (3.8 apg) and steals (3.8 spg) ... The Blazer scoring averages fall off after Jones, as 6-4 senior forward Christon Ingram averages 5.6 ppg as next highest scorer ... Ingram also has 6.4 rebounds per game.
Texas is the second Top 25 opponent for UAB to date, as the Blazers opened the season against No. 17 Vanderbilt, losing 92-51 on Nov. 9 ... Prior to Wahine Classic play, UAB also faced Illinois, defeating the Illini 69-56 on the road, then lost at now-No. 25 Auburn, 93-66 on Nov. 17... UAB is being out-scored by 9.7 ppg (65.4 ppg to opponents' 75.0 ppg) and both the Blazers and their opponents average 37.2 rebounds per game.... UAB has been hampered by turnovers, averaging 19.0 per game to the opposition's 14.4.
Down the Longhorn Sidelines
· Freshman guard Kathleen Nash has gained her first two career starts at the Wahine Classic, and has responded impressively ...UT's second-leading scorer (14.0 ppg) and last week's Big 12 co-Rookie of the Week, the 6-2 Nash gained her first career start against Virginia, scoring a team-high 18 points on 5-for-7 shooting and a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point range before fouling out... Against Kentucky, Nash had seven points and seven rebounds ... Nash also is 15-for-18 in free throws, best among the regulars with her 83.3 accuracy from the foul line ...
· Through five games, Brittainey Raven and Kat Nash have rotated as UT's top scorers ... Raven was the top scorer against Missouri State (career-high 22 points) and at Tennessee (18), while Nash led the way against Lamar (career-high 19 points) and Virginia (18)... The two are shooting a combined 56-for-106 (52.8) percent from the floor ...
· First-half leads are key for the Longhorns, as each of UT's wins have happened in games where Texas leads at the half ...
· Junior post Ashley Lindsey's 16 points against Kentucky surpassed her former career best of 15 points, set last year against UT-Pan American last Dec. 6, 2006 ... Lindsey reached double-figure scoring for the second time this year, as she had 14 points in the season opener against Missouri State ...
· Senior guard Erneisha Bailey came off the bench in the Kentucky game for the first time this season, after starting the first four games ... she responded by grabbing a career-high tying, season-high and game-best 11 rebounds ... this marks the third time in her career (all in the last two years) that Bailey, a 5-9 shooting guard, has logged 11 rebounds in a game from her perimeter position ...
· Redshirt sophomore forward Earnesia Williams has produced two strong back-to-back games in the Wahine Classic ... Williams, third in scoring with a 10.4 ppg average, has these two-game totals in the tourney: 27 points (13.5 ppg), seven rebounds, three assists and three steals while shooting 10-for-17 from the floor ... after scoring just 12 points total against Lamar (9) and Tennessee (3) in games two and three, Williams logged a season-best 15 points against Virginia and 12 points yesterday in the win over Kentucky
Hitting The Boards
A point of emphasis for UT coach Gail Goestenkors and the players in preseason was rebounding ... Despite a lineup with one starter over 6-1 (that being 6-4 junior Ashley Lindsey) and only two players over 6-2, Texas has out-rebounded each of its first five opponents ... Through five games, UT has a +6.2 rebound margin (41.0 rpg to opponents' 34.8 rpg) ... Texas even out-rebounded the imposing Tennessee lineup, 92-67, on Nov. 18 .... From 2003-04 through 2005-07, Texas was the Big 12's top rebounding squad... Last year, however, UT (18-14) only out-rebounded half of its opponents (16 of 32) and just two of its final seven foes ... Texas finished the year with a +1.1 rebound margin per game.
Next Up: Back Home For Three of the Next Four Matchups
Following today's game against UAB, Texas will fly back to the mainland and prepare to host three of its next four games ... Next up for the Longhorns are two home games against intrastate opponents, as UT hosts UT-Arlington (3-1) on Thursday, Nov. 29 (7 p.m. Central) and Sam Houston State (Sunday, Dec. 2, 2 p.m.) ... Then, Texas travels to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday, Dec. 8 before breaking for fall final examinations ... After exams, UT hosts Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday, Dec. 16... Texas is 2-0 at home to start the year.
|
|
 |
