Texas comes into their home opener of the season at 2-0 with wins over at the time #14 (AP)/#13 (ESPN) St. John’s (70-60) and Hofstra (72-52). Those wins have moved Texas into the rankings at #19 (AP) and #24 (ESPN). This will be the first meeting between Texas and Jackson State, a Southwestern Athletic Conference. Texas has gone 16 and 1 since they began to play SWAC teams in the 1974-75. That first game was a 47-74 loss to Prairie View A&M on Feb. 7, 1975. Since then, Texas has run off 16 straight wins against SWAC teams. JSU comes into Austin on a two game losing streak, having lost to Arkansas 58-97 on the road and to Southeastern Louisiana 54-66 in their home opener. This game will pit two new head coaches who are three games into their initial season with their new teams. This will be the home opener for Texas. After three losing seasons, Jackson State brought in Surina Dixon as head coach for this year. She has hired Felicia Jenkins and Terrence Johnson as her assistants with Rosy Ofoegbu serving as the graduate assistant. The Lady Tigers were picked seventh in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) in the coaches’ preseason poll. They return three starters and nine players who lettered last season. Tiffany Kellum was a preseason first-team All-SWAC selection, Marchetta Parker (# 23, 5-2 Sr. G) is the only Lady Tiger in double figures at 11.5 ppg. Ayanna Hardy-Fuller (# 2, 6-0 RS Soph. F) is second with 9.5 ppg. Bridget Robinson (# 20, 5-8 Fr. G) leads the team with a FG% of 60.0(3-5). Hardy-Fuller is second at 54.5% (6-11). Tiffany Kellum (# 22, 6-2 Sr. F) is the only other JSU player hitting more than 37% of her FG attempts (8-18, 44.4%). The Lady Tigers have made only 3 of 14 treys (21.4%). Ekwara Ndongo (# 1, 5-9 Jr. G) is 1-1 from BTA. Beatrice Banks (# 14, 5-5 RS Sr. G) has connected on 1-5 (20.0%). Daria Hester (# 24, 6-1 Sr. F/C) has hit the other 3, going 1-6 (16.7%).JSU is getting the FT line almost twice as much as their opponents but are not taking advantage, making only 35 of 56 (62.5%). They do have three players hitting 100% from the FT line but two of those have taken one and two shots, respectively. Banks, with 7 of 7 from the FT line, is the most consistent. The three Lady Tigers who have gotten to the FT line the most are: Bridgette James (# 21, 6-0 Sr. F; 6-13, 46.2%); Hardy-Fuller (7-12, 58.3%) and Kellum (7-11, 63.6%). Jackson State does have three strong rebounders in Kellum (9.0 rpg), Demara Howard (# 15, 5-9 Fr. F; 9.0 rpg) and James (7.0 rpg). The top two assist leaders come off the bench: Dominique Brothern (# 4, 5-4 Soph. G) with 5 assists and Ndongo with 4.Kellum is their top shot blocker with 4. Brothern also tops the team in steals with 5. Jackson State has 19 players on the roster. One would think at least four are walk-ons. 13 have played in both games. Banks, Kellum, Parker, James and Howard have started the first two games. Ndongo, Hardy-Fuller, Brothern, Hester and Rachel Jones (# 3, 5-6 Sr. G) all average double figure minutes off the bench. No player averages more than James’ 25 mpg. Alisa Ross (# 5-7 Soph. G) and Deziree Thomas (# 11, 5-5 Fr. G) get for a couple of minutes a game. James, Robinson and Thomas are all from Texas High Schools. Ten Horns have played in the first two games, nine in both games. Horns appear to have settled on a starting rotation with the same five starters for the first two games: Celina, Empress, Cokie, Nneka and Chasside. Of the 11 players that went to Florida, 10 played with eight averaging 13 minutes or more. Chas (34.5), Nneka (31.5) and Celina (30.5) all averaged over 30 mpg. Hopefully, we will get to see Gigi play in her first game against Jackson State. Horns are making an average percentage (42.5%) from the field, due mainly to their poor 3pt shooting to date. They are 2 of 14 from BTA for 14.3%. Inside the 3pt line, the Horns are hitting 46.5% of their shots.br>Horns are led by a potent inside/outside combo in Nneka (25.5 ppg) and Chas (20.5 ppg). Cokie and Empress add 7.0 ppg each. The bench adds 9 ppg collectively. Nneka is hitting 72% of her FGs while Chassidy and Imani are at 50% although Chassidy has taken 24 attempts to Imani’s four. Nneka is 1-1 from BTA while Chassidy has the only other 3pter made by Texas, hitting 1 of 6. Chassidy (16-19, 84.2%) and Nneka (14-20, 70%) are the only Horns to have more than six FT attempts. Nneka (11.0 rpg) and Chas (7.5 rpg) rank first and second in rebounding as well. Rebounds credited to the team as a whole average 9 per game. The bench adds 13 rpg or 24% of the total. Six players have at least one assist with Celina leading the way with 8. Brady has 5 assists and Chassidy 4. The team is led in steals by two frosh: Empress (5) and Celina (4). Imani has 3 blocks while Cokie has 2. Projected starters based on the last game played: [pre] TEXAS JSU Celina (5-8 Fr.) Parker (5-2 Sr.) Empress (5-7 Fr.) Howard (5-9 Fr.) Chassidy (5-10 Jr.) Banks (5-5 RS Sr.) Nneka (6-1 Soph.) Kellum (6-2 Sr.) Cokie (6-4 Sr.) James (6-0 Sr.) Texas will hold a significant height advantage in the post as Kellum at 6-2 is the tallest player for JSU, other than two frosh who have not yet played for JSU and stand 6-4 and 6-3. Kellum is the key both in scoring and rebounding for the Lady Tigers. JSU will be hard pressed to stop the Horns from going inside. One advantage JSU will have is experienced starters. TEAM STATISTICS UT JSU -------------------------------------------------- SCORING................. 142 112 Points per game....... 71.0 56.0 Scoring margin........ +15.0 -25.5 FIELD GOALS-ATT......... 48-113 37-117 Field goal pct........ .425 .316 FGs made per game..... 24.0 18.5 FGs att per game...... 56.5 58.5 2 POINT FG-ATT.......... 46-99 34-103 2-point FG pct........ .465 .330 2-pt FG made per game. 23.0 17.0 2-pt FG att per game.. 49.5 51.5 3 POINT FG-ATT.......... 2-14 3-14 3-point FG pct........ .143 .214 3-pt FG made per game. 1.0 1.5 3-pt FG att per game.. 7.0 7.0 FREE THROWS-ATT......... 44-62 35-56 Free throw pct........ .710 .625 FTs made per game..... 22.0 17.5 FTs att per game...... 31.0 28.0 REBOUNDS................ 109 89 Rebounds per game..... 54.5 44.5 Rebounding margin..... +26.0 1.5 ASSISTS................. 21 18 Assists per game...... 10.5 9.0 TURNOVERS............... 41 58 Turnovers per game.... 20.5 29.0 Turnover margin....... -5.5 -9.0 Assist/turnover ratio. 0.5 0.3 STEALS.................. 16 14 Steals per game....... 8.0 7.0 BLOCKS.................. 7 6 Blocks per game....... 3.5 3.0 ATTENDANCE.............. 0 301 Home games-Avg/Game... 0-0 1-301 SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st Ave 2nd Ave Total Ave ------------------------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----- ---- Texas.................... 63 31.5 79 39.5 - 142 71.0 Jackson State............ 63 31.5 49 24.5 - 112 56.0 [/pre] Neither team is doing well from BTA. Texas has hit on only 2 of 14 while JSU is 3 of 14. I don’t expect Texas to continue to miss from BTA. They have too many good shooters for the poor shooting to continue. This should be a game where the Horns get a chance to work on their fastbreak off defensive rebounds. While Texas has gotten stronger and played better in the second half, outscoring opponents 79-42 in the second half. The Lady Tigers have faded a bit in that half. While they stay close in the first half, opponents have almost doubled them up in the second half, 84-49. One area where the Horns and the Lady Tigers are close is steals with Texas taking the ball away 8 times per game while JSU does it 7 times per game. Horns are turning the ball over 20 times a game which ranks last in the Big 12. JSU is worse, averaging 29 TOs a game. Texas should win this game easily simply because Jackson State looks to be overmatched in the post and has even more trouble than Texas in turning the ball over. Texas’ pressure could force 30+ TOs from JSU. Game time is 7:00 PM on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012. The game will be televised on the Longhorn Network. The game will be carried on radio on KVET 1300 AM. Bevo’s Bargains has the following special: “Duffle Bag Bundle Pack: $15 bundle pack that includes one general admission ticket and one Texas Athletics duffle bag (to be picked up at the game). To purchase, call (512)232-3865; advance sale only; based on availability. Deadline to order is Monday, Nov. 19 at 4 p.m.” Hoping for an excellent turnout for the first home game of the season for a new squad and coaching staff!
Good question. Could be during the Ashley Gayle period, perhaps at some point during Cokie's freshman season. Or more likley when Ellen Bayer was here; not sure what the record is though.
Found it on the Texassports factbook. 16 blks vs. TT in 1990 (can't remember if that's the Ellen Bayer era or not, but pretty much has to be with that kind of number!). So not likely to better that record, but still a great night blocking regardless.
Am still kicking myself. Got busy and had to work late and then forgot about the game. But am very happy with the results!
Are more players getting injured? Only 8 played, plus Nadia. So, now Anne Marie is out, in addition to Chelsea, Kayla, GiGi, and Ronisha?
Some good things, including five players in double figures, including all three posts that played. JSU couldn’t stop the Horns inside and they shouldn’t have been able to. Nneka continued to dominate, this time going for 24 pts, 20 rebs, 5 blocks and 4 steals to more than make up for four turnovers. Both she and Cokie are rebounding strong. Imani also had a double double and Cokie was three rebounds short of all three reaching that plateau. Even with three guards going 0-2 each from BTA, the Horns hit 37.5% from BTA. Big improvement over the first two games. Horns got 16 assists on 31 FGs. Pretty nice stat. 13 blocks and 13 steals weren’t bad. JSU made 9 3s but some of those were closely challenged, can’t do anything but shake your head at them going in. The bad: turnovers on the first two possessions were an indication of the TO trouble the Horns would have all game long, ending with 24. Every player had at least one TO with the posts ending up with half of the TOs, a number due to bringing the ball down or trying to dribble in traffic. Some of the TOs were just poor passes. It looked at times like they were a bit out of sync but then they would go on a nice run. Lots for the coaches to work on with the players. Going back to the game, it was nice to see the D inside. JSU had trouble getting shots off inside. When Nneka wasn’t challenging/blocking shots, it was either Cokie or Imani. It’s one thing to listen to the radio and look at the stats that Nneka piled up in the first two games and another to watch her in a game. She is simply playing amazingly, and under control. Horns may have two potential All Americans in Nneka and Chassidy. Everyone is talking about what huge strides UConn’s Stefanie Dolson made between last season and this one, reshaping her body and improving her game in the post. Nneka made at least the same type of jump in her play. It was great to see Cokie playing for 27 minutes and being so effective while in there. Still have two more games to tighten up the ballhandling and continue to get comfortable with the new system in game conditions before they face UCLA. That game is going to be extremely physical, especially inside. Just ask OU. Hope to see a bigger crowd Saturday vs Central Conn than the just under 3000 that showed up tonight.
video highlights of the game. It is really impressive to see Nneka, Cokie and Imani rebounding. Not just because of their height advantage but of how they move to the ball to get the rebound.
I agree, Babhorn. They way they move to the ball is impressive. I LOVE the way the post players are scoring this year. Night and day from last year and much appreciated. There were a couple of times early in the game when I wished Imani had tried to dunk instead of placing the ball in the basket. Looks like she learned to power up in the second half. I'm a Thankful Horn with the energy and effort this team is playing with and thankful for the conditioning & training program that helps them run hard the whole game.
