WVU is 5-3 at home and 1-7 on the road. Horns are 6-2 at home and 2-6 on the road. The Longhorns have won their last two road games to break a 0-6 road record before the two road game winning streak. Texas defeated WVU in Austin 61-55 to get to 3-5 in the series. Horns lead in Big 12 games between the two 3-2. The longest win streak for WVU in the series is two games. Horns will be attempting to match that by sweeping this season’s games. A win would also close the series to 4-5 in favor of WVU. Texas has never won more than one game at a time from WVU in the series. In Big 12 games, WVU is looking at winning two home games in a row for the second time in conference play. Texas is seeking their fifth straight win and third road win in that streak. Going into their Senior Day game, the Mountaineers are led by Bria Holmes’ (# 23, 6-1 Jr. G) 17.0 ppg. That puts her second in the league in scoring average. Averee Fields (# 5, 6-1 Sr. F) is second at 10.4 ppg. Jessica Morton (# 21, 5-10 Jr. G) adds 7.4 ppg coming off the bench. Bre McDonald (# 20, 6-0 Soph. G/F) contributes 6.8 ppg. Starting PG Linda Stepney (# 22, 5-7 Sr. G) averages 5.4 ppg. Holmes (102-268; 38.1%) and Fields (72-185; 38.9%) make WVU’s offense go. They combine for 174 of the 343 FGs made (50.7%) and 453 of the 953 FGs attempted (47.5%). Crystal Leary (# 32, 6-2 Sr. F) is the most accurate shooter at 43.8% (7-16) with starting center Lanay Montgomery (# 15, 6-5 RS Soph. C) second at 42.4% (25-59). As a team, WVU ranks last in the conference in FG%. Holmes (11-75; 14.7%) and Teana Muldrow (# 11, 6-1 RS Fr. F; 16-58, 27.6%) are the most likely to hoist up threes for WVU. They have taken 133 of the 258 treys WVU has attempted (51.6%). Muldrow and Morton have made the most 3s with 16 apiece. Morton is the most accurate 3pt shooter at 43.2% (16-37) with Stepney third at 30.6% (11-36). Fields is second in 3pt % at 33.3% but has only taken three treys in conference play. The Mountaineers are last in 3pt %. Holmes gets to the FT line on average 5.7 times a game (57-91; 62.6%). That’s far and away the best on the team. Next up is Stepney with 2.4 FTs per game. Her FT % of 78.9% (30-38) places her second on the team behind Fields’ 81.5% (22-27) and ahead of Leary’s 76.7% (23-30). The team FT % of 64.1% is seventh in the league. L. Montgomery is fifth in the league in rebounding at 7.7 rpg. Fields is tenth with her average of 6.3 rpg. Stepney and Leary each add 4.1 rpg. Stepney has 53 assists with Holmes (35) and Fields (32) each at 2.0 apg or better. L. Montgomery has 52 blocks, half of the 104 WVU has as a team. That average of 3.3 bpg places L. Montgomery at the top of the Big 12 in bpg and total blocks. WVU is two blocks ahead of Baylor as the Mountaineers are the top blocking team in the league. Fields tops the team in steals with 35. Holmes and Stepney each have 20 swipes. WVU has four players that have started every conference game this season: Holmes, Fields, Stepney and L. Montgomery. McDonald, Muldrow and Leary have played in all 16 Big 12 games with 15 starts among them. Morton has one start among 13 games played. Kayla Montgomery (# 4, 6-4 Jr. F) has gotten into 12 games with an average of 3.2 mpg. Tyara Warren (# 3, 5-9 Fr. G) averages 9.4 mpg in the 7 games she has participated in. Dominique Simpson (# 0, 5-8 Fr. G) has seen action in 3 games (1.7 mpg). In the last two games, McDonald has joined Holmes, Fields, Stepney and L. Montgomery in the starting lineup. Holmes(36.4 mpg), Fields (35.6 mpg) and Stepney (34.6 mpg). Stepney is 0.06 mpg from joining Holmes #4) and Fields (# 5) in the top ten for most minutes played per game. The basic rotation for WVU consists of eight players that average 13 mpg or better. L. Montgomery averages the fourth most minutes at 23.8 mpg. Ariel tops the Horns with her average of 10.3 ppg. Next are Imani (9.1 ppg), Kelsey (8.8 ppg), Brady (8.3 ppg) and Brooke (7.9 ppg). Even though she has played in 12 games due to missing the first four with an ankle injury, Ariel now has taken the most shots on the team with 127 FGs attempted. She has hit 45 for a percentage of 35.4%. Brady is second in FGs attempted at 126, making 41 (32.5%). Kelsey (61-122; 50.0%) and Imani (56-103; 54.4%) lead in FGs made (Kelsey) and FG% (Imani). Four players have reached at least 30 3pters attempted in league play. Brady with 62 3pters attempted tops the team in this category. Brooke is the leader in 3pters made with 20 of 56 and 3pt% (35.7%). Ariel (8-32; 25.0%) and Krystle (8-33; 24.2%) are the other top 3pt threats for Texas. Brooke is 15th in the league with an average of 1.25 3s made per game. If she were making 1.5 3pters per game, Brooke would rank 6th in 3pt %. Texas is fifth in the league in FT% at 72.7%. Nine players are hitting 70% or better from the FT line. Imani tops them in FTs made and attempted (34-48; 70.8%). Brady is second in FTs made and attempted (32-41; 78.0%). Brooke has the top FT% at 84.6% (22-26). Krystle is second in FT% at 80.0% (8-10). Imani (6.6 rpg) and Kelsey (6.1 rpg) are among the top 13 rebounders in the league. Brady (4.0 rpg) and four others averaging over 3 rpg help Imani and Kelsey rank second in rebounding at 41.2 rpg. Horns are also second in rebounding margin at a plus 8.1. They are second in defensive rebounding, holding opponents to 33.1 rpg. Brady leads the team in assists at 3.0 apg. Empress (2.8 apg) and Brooke (2.1 apg) also crack the 2.0 apg. Brady (11) and Empress (12) rank among the top 12 assist leaders in the league. Brady leads a group of five others with double digit steals. She has 14 while Imani, Kelsey and Brooke each has tallied 12 steals. Krystle has 11 and Ariel 10. Imani and Kelsey rank 5th and 6th respectively in the league in blocks per game with 31 and 25 blocks in 16 games. Kelsey has started all 16 league games with Brady totaling 15 starts in 16 games. Ariel has 9 starts in 12 games. Brooke is the third player that played in all 16 league games, starting 10 of 16. Imani joins that group with 5 starts in 16 games. Aside from those four, all others in the base 10 player rotation have missed at least one game. The last four games the starting lineup has consisted of Kelsey, Brady, Brianna, Brooke and Ariel. That lineup is 4-0.Brady is averaging the most minutes per game at 33.0 mpg. Ariel (25.7 mpg), Kelsey (26.8 mpg), Brooke (26.9 mpg) and Empress (24.2 mpg) all average over 20 mpg. In the teens are Imani (17.3 mpg), Brianna (16.0 mpg), Krystle (15.4 mpg) and Celina (11.7 mpg). Nekia averages 11.1 mpg but has not played in the last six games due to a knee injury. Her status for the last two games remains unclear. Projected starters based on the last game: Texas_________________WVU Brianna (5-9 Soph. G)____Fields (6-1 Sr. F) Kelsey (6-5 Soph. C)_____L. Montgomery (6-5 RS Soph. C) Brady (5-11 RS Jr. G)_____McDonald (6-0 Soph. G/F) Brooke (5-4 Fr. G)_______Stepney (5-7 Sr. G) Ariel (5-11 Fr. G)________Holmes (6-1 Jr. G) Holmes and Fields will be the focus of the Texas Defense. In the first game, a 61-55 win for Texas in Austin, those two combined to hit 14 of 28 FGs for 34 pts. Texas did not get many shots from their posts (8-17 FGs) but had a balanced scoring effort with six players scoring between 6 and 9 pts to complement Nneka’s 11 pts. Holmes is an outstanding scorer but is not having a good year shooting the ball. Hope she does not get red hot on Sunday. For Texas, they will continue to go inside. The problem is that L. Montgomery is one of the top shot blockers in the league. She will contest shots in the paint. Kelsey and Imani will need to get around her as she has enough height to counter an advantage the Horns usually have inside. That was the second of four games that Ariel missed. Since returning, she has become the Horns’ leading scorer and will present WVU with a problem similar to the one that Holmes does to Texas. In the past four games, Texas has had a different leading scorer in each game with between 2 and 4 players reaching double figures in each games. Unlike with WVU, where Holmes and Fields will be the focal point of the Texas defense, WVU will have trouble figuring out pregame which Texas player will be the one to shut down. For WVU, L. Montgomery needs to stay out of foul trouble as the only other player over 6-1 is K. Montgomery at 6-4 who averages 3.2 minutes a game for those games she gets in (12 conference games so far). Stats are Big 12 stats only. TEAM STATISTICS_______Texas (8-8)___WVU (6-10) ------------------------------------------------------------------ SCORING_______________1006__________932 Points per game_________62.9__________58.3 Scoring margin_________+1.9__________-4.5 FIELD GOALS-ATT________367-940 ______343-953 Field goal pct___________39.0%________36.0% FG made per game_______22.9_________21.4 FG att. per game_________58.8_________59.6 2 POINT FG-ATT__________305-727______279-705 2-point FG pct___________42.0%________39.6% 2-pt FG made per game___19.1_________17.4 2-pt FG att. per game_____45.4_________44.1 3 POINT FG-ATT__________62-213_______64-248 3-point FG pct___________29.1%________25.8% 3-pt FG made per game___3.9__________4.0 3-pt FG att. per game_____13.3_________15.5 FREE THROWS-ATT________210-289______182-284 Free throw pct___________72.7%_______64.1% F-Throws made per game__13.1_________11.4 FTs attempted per game___18.1_________17.8 REBOUNDS_______________659_________620 Rebounds per game_______41.2________38.8 Rebounding margin_______+8.1________-0- ASSISTS_________________228________166 Assists per game__________14.3________10.4 TURNOVERS______________264________241 Turnovers per game_______16.5________15.1 Turnover margin__________-2.9________+0.6 Assist/turnover ratio_______0.9_________0.7 STEALS__________________104_________134 Steals per game__________6.5__________8.4 BLOCKS__________________78__________104 Blocks per game__________4.9__________6.5 Conf. Winning Streak_______4___________ -0- Conf. Home win streak______2___________1 Conf. Road win streak______2___________-0- ATTENDANCE____________28039________16687 Home games-Avg/Game__8-3505_______8-2086 Ave. Score by Period:______1st_____2nd____OT___2OT___Total Texas____________________29.4___32.3___0.6___0.6____62.9 WVU_____________________26.6___31.7___-0-___-0-____58.3 This could turn out to be a defensive battle. Texas ranks near the top in several shooting defense categories as well as being an excellent rebounding team. Texas is first in 3pt % defense while WVU is fourth. The problem for both teams here is that they rank ninth (Texas) and tenth (WVU) in 3pt FG percentage. Neither team is overly dependent on the 3pt shot as Texas only takes13 of 59 shots from BTA. WVU averages 16 of 60 3s a game. Texas has been on a hot streak from BTA with both Brooke and Brady combining to hit 18 of 42 (42.9%) from BTA in the past five games. WVU is second in blocked shots and fourth in steals, an area that can take advantage of a Texas weakness for committing turnovers (ninth in turnover margin). Texas should dominate the rebounding although they only had a six rebound edge in the first game. I expect a fast paced game as both like to push the ball. Both teams score well in the paint although WVU does it more with penetration and Texas goes to their posts. FT shooting could be crucial as Texas has reached 72% while WVU has plunged to 64%. Both teams get to the FT line almost 20 times a game. For WVU, that helped them keep the first game close as they hit 12-14 (85.7%) in that game. This game will be Senior Day for WVU. They will be pumped up to send their three seniors out with a win at home. From wvusports.com: “Variety of Promos Set for WBB Senior Day” http://www.wvusports.com/page.cfm?story=27525&cat=exclusives From wvusports.com: “A Senior Trio to Remember” http://www.wvusports.com/page.cfm?story=27547&cat=exclusives From wvusports.com: a short video interview with Bria Holmes who talks about the next two games (including Texas on Sunday). http://www.wvusports.com/blogs.cfm?blog=wbballPlaybook&story=27541 From wvusports.com: Texas Game Notes http://www.wvusports.com/content/files/Gamenotes/wbasketball/WBB-TEXAS-MAR1.pdf Game time will be 12 noon CST Sunday, March 01, 2015 and will be carried on ESPN2. Radio: KVET 1300 / Sirius 113 and XM 199.
From texassports.com: “Longhorns face West Virginia on Sunday (12 p.m. Central, ESPN2) in Big 12 road finale” http://www.texassports.com/news/2015/2/28/WBB_0228152512.aspx That pregame video with Coach Aston and Krystle is really great.
From the AAS: “UT women to face West Virginia on Sunday” http://www.mystatesman.com/news/spo...-women-to-face-west-virginia-on-sunday/nkLZj/
The pre game video with Aston and Henderson was great! I love to see Henderson on the court! She is very ball savvy and I believe if she played more, might even be our best 3 pt. shooter. Sad to see her go this season. Fingers crossed that we will get to see her play more through the tourneys!
The offense is flowing. Ariel is looking like our primary offense weapon for now. That D is really clamping down on WVU. Helps that they missed some 3s.
Well, at the half up by 8...I'll take it.. Like the Zone D, and then switching to Man D... Love the way the posts are playing, and Empress off the bench is $$ Like it, but we have 20 more minutes!! Prayers up!!
Game of runs. Glad to see us close on one to get the momentum going into the half. Playing zone against WVU has been the correct move by Coach A, but she has mixed up a bit here and there.
Pretty even as far as attempts from the field and FT line but Horns shooting 50% to WVU's 32%. Both teams on pace to have 20+ TOs each.
