 "Photo: Caleb Miller")
The women's basketball team staged a remake of the film "A Perfect Murder" on Sunday at the Erwin Center. In this version, Sam Houston State played the victim.
The No. 24 Longhorns (6-2) had a season high 17 steals and held the Bearkats (1-7) to just 14 first half points en route to a 91-41 victory. At one point they led 39-4.
"Our team came out ready to play and our posts were strong on both ends of the court," said Texas coach Gail Goestenkors. "We came out with a lot of energy. What I'm focused on most is seeing this team improve, and we really got to work on improving our man-to-man defense tonight."
Sam Houston State did not have a single player over six feet tall, and the Longhorns took advantage, out-rebounding the Bearkats 51-29. Forwards Ashley Lindsey and Earnesia Williams dominated inside, both scoring 12 points and collecting six rebounds.
"We knew we had a size advantage, so we knew we could really focus on the boards and use that to our advantage," Goestenkors said. "We had a good effort from everybody on the boards tonight."
Brittainey Raven had a career-high seven assists and led all scorers with 19 points. Raven used her athleticism to run the floor, scoring several buckets in transition.
"In our guard meeting, we focused on trying to get more assists, so I worked on that in the game," Raven said. "Earnie and Ashley did a good job of finishing and I kept trying to get them the ball. I was really excited about it."
Goestenkors was most happy with something she saw from Raven that didn't show up on the stat sheet: poise.
"She is beginning to understand when she doesn't have a transition opportunity, and she's starting to hold back and let us get into our half court set," Goestenkors said. "It's all about finding that balance of when to push and when to pull back a little bit. I thought today was one of her best days of helping us direct our sets."
Texas started the game down
2-0, but went on a 23-0 run and never trailed again after that. The 6-foot-4-inch Lindsey showed off her post moves when she made the first bucket of the game for Texas. Freshman guard Kathleen Nash capped off the run, burying a 3-pointer in transition after a Carla Cortijo steal.
The game only got uglier after that. Texas went up 39-4 when Raven stole the ball and then passed the ball up the court to Erneisha Bailey, who went in for the layup.
Sam Houston went on a 10-0 run to close out the half. Post Lydia Gonzales started it with a 3-pointer from the corner. With 29 seconds left in the half, sophomore guard Brittany Brooks hit a three to make it a 39-14, which turned out to be the final bucket of the half.
Texas continued their dominance in the second half. Leading 64-26 with 12:16 left to play, the Longhorns had another brilliant run, scoring 18-points unanswered.
The game marked the third time this season Texas has scored 90 or more points in a game. The team never scored more than 84 last year.
Sophomore Kristen Nash had a season-high nine points off the bench.
Texas was able to run Goestenkors' pressing and trapping system smoothly, while showing more patience in the half court set during the second half.
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