North Texas (7-1) at No. 19/21 Texas (4-3)
Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005
2 p.m. (Central) at the Frank Erwin Center (capacity 16,775), Austin, Texas
"Texas Basketball Autograph Day"
Game Day Information & Quick Facts
TV: none
Live Internet TV: (subscription-based)
Radio: Texas: Texas: KVET Radio/Sports Radio 1300 (1300 AM), Austin; UNT: KNTU (88.1 FM) - Denton
Tickets
Purchase at TexasBoxOffice.com or call 512-471-3333 or 1-800-982-BEVO. For charge-by-phone, you can call 512-477-6060. Tickets can be purchased in person at the following locations: Bellmont Hall Athletics Ticket Office (Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m-4 p.m. Central); and at any Texas Box Office location, including the Frank Erwin Center (Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and game days prior to tipoff) or at Austin area H-E-B stores.
Teams at A Glance
National Rankings: Texas: AP #19; USA Today/ESPN #22 ... North Texas: not ranked
Last Year: Texas (22-9, NCAA 2nd Rd.); North Texas ((14-14)
All-Time Series Record: 10th meeting: UT leads, 9-0 ... (Texas is 6-0 at home, 1-0 away, 2-0 neutral)
Series Streak: +9, Texas
Last Meeting: Dec. 16, 2004: #4 Texas 79, North Texas 54
Texas Coach Jody Conradt (Baylor '63): 37th year overall: 1,154 games: 873-281 (.756); 30th year at Texas: 975 games: 756-219 (.775)
North Texas Coach Tina Slinker: 17th year overall (all at UNT): 446 games: 205-241 (.460) Jody Conradt vs. North Texas: 9-0
Game Promotions
Autograph Day: Fans are invited to join the Texas players after the game (on the court) for an autograph session! Please note that each person is limited to two (2) items to be autographed, as a courtesy to all fans in attendance.
Holiday Special: Buy 2 general admission tickets and get 1 FREE! UT Students can enter to win $25 Simon Longhorn Giftcards ... Enter at the marketing tables located outside section 29 and 44 in the concourse.
Quick Glance at the Teams
The Texas Longhorns stand 4-3 overall, and are coming off a 10-day layoff for fall semester final examinations... Last time out, UT defeated Stephen F. Austin, 77-56 (Dec. 8) in Austin, behind a season and game-high 19 points from 6-3 junior Tiffany Jackson and the first career double-double from 6-4 freshman Ashley Lindsey (12 points, career-high 13 rebounds) ... The Longhorns are ranked No. 19 in this week's AP Poll (same as a week ago) and are No. 22 (down from 21st last week) in the USA Today/ESPN Poll ... Texas has 11 players dressing for today's game (three are injured) ... North Texas (7-1) from the Sunbelt Conference, brings a five-game win streak and is off to its second-best season's start in team history ... The Mean Green have had a week's layoff, last playing on Dec. 11 when they defeated UTEP, 60-58, behind 6-2 sophomore Talicia Sanders' 11 points and 13 rebounds ... This will be the 10th meeting between these two squads ... Texas leads the series, 9-0.
Four-Game Homestand, Then Three Away
The Longhorns are playing the third of four consecutive games at home - the longest homestand of the year for Texas ... UT closes out the home string on Wed., Dec. 21 against TAMU-Corpus Christi ... After the TAMUCC game, Texas hits the road (post-Christmas) for three straight nationally-televised road games, tying its longest road swing of the year ... UT plays at No. 7/7 Rutgers (Fri., Dec. 30 on CSTV, 6 p.m.) before beginning the Big 12 Conference slate with games at Kansas (Tue., Jan. 3, 6 p.m. on CSTV) and at No. 5/5 Baylor (Sat., Jan. 7, 3 p.m. on FSN) ... To date this year,Texas is 2-2 at home to date, 0-1 in away games and 2-0 at neutral sites.
In the NCAA Statistics This Week
The NCAA released its second week of Division I national statistics on Dec. 13 ... Texas ranks No. 7 nationally in blocked shots per game, averaging 6.7 rejections per contest... The Longhorns are led by 6-4 freshman Ashley Lindsey who has 41 percent of UT's bocked shots (19 of 47) ... Lindsey is averaging 2.7 blocks per game and is ranked No. 21 nationally ... The NCAA blocks leader is Texas A&M (8.0 bpg) ... For North Texas, 5-8 senior guard Erika Bobo stands No. 8 among all Division I players in steals average ... She has 32 (4.0 thefts per game).
CollegeRPI.com Released
In this week's CollegeRPI.com, the Longhorns are ranked No. 38 overall with a strength of schedule of 13th ... North Texas stands 48th in the RPI with a strength of schedule of 111 ... Connecticut, Baylor and Tennessee are the top ranked teams in the RPI, while Old Dominion (1-4) has the nation's toughest schedule to date.
Texas Stat Leaders
The Longhorns are led by the double-figure scoring duo of 5-10 freshman Erika Arriaran (12.9 ppg) and 6-3 junior Tiffany Jackson (12.7 ppg) ... Jackson tops the club in rebounding (6.6 rpg) and steals (19, 2.7 spg), while Arriaran is first in assists (18, 2.6 apg), first in 3-pointers made (12) and taken (29) and is 16-for-19 in free throws (.842) .... Following in the scoring column are 5-7 freshman Carla Cortijo (7.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg), although Cortijo will miss a second consecutive game with a hyperextended left knee; 6-4 freshman Ashley Lindsey has averages of 7.1 ppg and 5.6 rpg, while 5-6 senior Nina Norman adds 7.1 ppg ... Lindsey leads the club in blocks with 19 (a 2.7 bpg average) ... Texas is out-scoring its opponents by a +2.4 margin (68.1 ppg to 65.7 ppg), and holds a rebounding edge of 42.4 rpg to the opposition's 39.3 rpg (+3.1).
Texas-North Texas Series
This will be the 10th meeting between Texas and North Texas, and Texas leads the series, 9-0 ... All the games in the series but the first have come with Jody Conradt at the helm of the Texas program ... The Longhorns stand 6-0 at the Erwin Center against the Mean Green, and are 1-0 games in Denton and 2-0 at neutral sites ... The last time these two squads met was last year in Denton - UT's first appearance there - where the Longhorns came away with a 79-54 win on Dec. 16, 2004, propelled by a career-high 30 points from senior G Jamie Carey ... Trailing 34-31 at intermission, UT out-scored the Mean Green by a 48-20 margin in the second half as UNT was limited to 33 percent shooting accuracy, and also held a 25-12 edge in rebounding in the second half ... Then-sophomore Tiffany Jackson added a double-double (17 points, game-high 15 rebounds) ... UT was 8-16 in 3-pointers, as Carey went 4-7 and Heather Schreiber (16 points) went 4-6 ... Texas finished the game shooting 44.1 percent (26-59), going 16-for-34 (47 percent) from the floor in the second half... UT shot 19-for-22 from the foul line (12-for-15 in the final half), while North Texas was 10-for-14 from the charity stripe ... Texas committed 20 turnovers, while UNT had 23 ... North Texas was paced by sophomore Mia Ajekwu (16 points).
A Look at North Texas
North Texas is coming off a 14-14 campaign, and was picked to finish first in the Sunbelt Conference's West Division ... Leading the way for UNT are 5-8 senior guard Erika Bobo (11.3 ppg, 6.5 rpg), 6-2 freshman forward Amber Jackson (10.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg) , 5-8 senior guard Mian Williams (9.9 ppg) and 6-3 junior post Mia Ajekwu (8.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg) ... Bobo also leads the club in assists with 29 (3.6 apg) and steals (32, 4.0 spg).
Common Opponent
Texas and North Texas have met one common opponent this year - Stephen F. Austin ... Texas defeated SFA in its last outing (77-56, Dec. 8), while the Mean Green defeated SFA in their season opener, 71-65 (Nov. 18).
Texas Injury Report, Roster Deletion
UT has lost the services of 6-0 freshman F Earnesia Williams (5.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg) for the year due to an ACL right knee injury which will require reconstructive surgery ... Williams, a 6-0 scholastic All-American and Gatorade State Player of the Year out of Sapulpa, Okla. and Sapulpa High School, suffered the ACL injury during the Dec. 4th game against No. 1 Duke... Williams was making the first start of her young Longhorns career, and was injured on a baseline drive to the basket with 4:47 left in the game... She finished with a season-high 12 points to go with three rebounds, one assist and two steals in 14 minutes of play.
Freshman point guard Carla Cortijo, who was held out of the Longhorns' last game and practices (vs. S.F. Austin) due to knee problems, is sidelined for at least 10 days after undergoing MRI testing...The MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) test was done on Dec. 12, and it showed that the ligament was still intact and that the knee had a hyperextension... Cortijo will be evaluated again in the next 10 days, and will be sidelined until that next examination ... Prior to missing the SFA game, Cortijo had played in Texas' first six games, gaining the first start of her career against No. 1 Duke on Dec. 4 ... She is averaging 19.7 minutes per game and ranks third in Longhorns scoring (7.5 ppg) and second in assists (14, 2.3 apg) ... Cortijo also leads the Longhorns in free throw shooting, hitting at an 85 percent clip (17 for 20) from the foul line.
Texas also saw its roster reduced when 6-5 junior post Kalee Carey left the team on December 7th due to personal reasons ... Carey had played just 10 minutes this year in two games ... Carey saw action in 31 games as a reserve post, scoring 98 points with 72 rebounds.
Home Cookin'
Prior to the Nov. 18 loss to New Mexico, the Longhorns had only lost ONE game at the Frank Erwin Center dating back to the start of the 2002-03 season ...At home to date this year, Texas is 2-2 ... Since the start of 2002-03, Texas is now 46-3 at home - a 93.9 winning percentage.... Last year, UT was 13-1 at the Erwin Center after going 16-0 and 15-0 at home, respectively, the two previous years ... Last year's only home loss came to No. 24 Rutgers in a 51-47 upset when the Longhorns were ranked No. 4 ... (After that, Texas won its final eight home games prior to the loss to New Mexico)... Prior to that Rutgers loss, Texas owned the nation's top homecourt win streak at 41 games - the second longest homecourt victory streak in Longhorns history... In 417 all-time games at the Erwin Center, which opened in 1977-78, Texas stands 362-55 (an 86.8 winning percentage).
Double Figure Scorers
Junior Tiffany Jackson and freshman Erika Arriaran have both posted double-figure scoring in five of UT's first seven games - that is a the team high ... Jackson has been in double-figure scoring the last four games, collecting 58 points in this span for a 14.5 ppg average ... Arriaran has notched double-digit scoring in four of the last five games, and in the last two (vs. Duke and S.F. Austin), collected 30 points and nine rebounds.
