AUSTIN, Texas—No. 2 Texas used its size and relentless defense to overwhelm the Northwestern State women's basketball team 96-38 on Wednesday evening at the Moody Center.
NSU (5-5) was forced into 28 turnovers by a Texas (13-0) defense that is one of the best in the country at taking the ball away, which resulted in 32 Longhorns points and helped the home team record 27 more shot attempts than the Demons.
Texas also grabbed 14 offensive rebounds, which resulted in 16 second chance points.
With those extra opportunities, Texas took full advantage, shooting 56.5 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from deep. A team that makes around four 3-pointers per game poured in 6-of-11 from 3-point land, including making all five it attempted in the second half.
While the Longhorns did damage from deep, they did most of their work in the paint, scoring 46 points down low and controlling the paint, which led to 15 free throw attempts as well, which Texas made 12 of those.
Vernell Atamah showed the bright lights don't bother her, scoring a team-high 12 points for the Demons, making a pair of 3-pointers.
Coming off a 19-point performance in the win at McNeese,
Nya Valentine scored nine points, as did
Clarence Djuela.
NSU was the first low or mid-major team to hold the powerful Longhorns to fewer than 100 points scored.
"I think there were a lot of positives and a lot of teachable moments from this game," head coach
Anna Nimz said. "Texas is an incredible team and I'm thankful for the opportunity to play (and coach) in such an elite atmosphere."
Texas wasted little time taking control of the game, as it scored the game's first 13 points and made its first eight shots from the floor to go up 17-3 just past the midway point of the first quarter.
Atamah scored seven points in the opening period for NSU, and the Demons shot 50 percent from the field, but coughed the ball up eight times, many of which turned into fast breaks for Texas, and those turned into 12 points for the Longhorns.
After being down 25-9 after the first quarter, the Demons played right with Texas for the first eight minutes of the second quarter.
A triple from
Payton Miller cut the deficit to 37-19 with two minutes to play in the second, as NSU only trailed 12-10 in the period to that point.
Enter Madison Booker.
Booker, one of the best players in the country, scored six of the final eight points of the first half, as the Longhorns scored the final eight of the half to go up 45-19 at halftime.
Booker did not let up in the second half, either, as she scored 21 of her game-high 28 points in the final 22 minutes to bust open the game.
Texas recorded a pair of double-doubles, as Rori Harrison, one of the best point guards in America, scored 11 points and dished out 10 assists. Kyla Oldacre joined Harrison with a double-double of her own with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
The Demons are next in action on Sunday afternoon when they welcome Lamar to Prather Coliseum for the first game at home after a month of play road and neutral site games, as it is all Southland Conference play from now on.
