Techsters fall to No. 2 Texas

AUSTIN, Texas – Second-ranked Texas combined to score 46 points off of turnovers and second chance looks to down Louisiana Tech 88-54 before 2,956 fans at the Erwin Center Thursday night.

The Longhorns (6-0) snapped an eight-game losing streak against Louisiana Tech (4-3) dating back to the last meeting between the two programs in the 1993 NCAA Tournament.

Texas wasted little time in building its lead. Up by a 6-4 score, the Longhorns used a 14-0 over a three-minute span to push the advantage out to 20-4. The Longhorns led 25-9 at the end of the frame and 50-26 at halftime.

“I thought we had a group towards end of first half that really competed well,” said Tech head coach Brooke Stoehr. “I thought we started moving the basketball better. Texas is a very long, very deep, very athletic team. They play very hard defensively. You can’t expect to make one screen and one pass and get a shot. I thought we settled for a lot of stuff early.

“We have to screen and rescreen and change sides of the floor. Our attacks have to come off of close outs off of second and third side of the floor. We had a group that didn’t want to do that tonight. And we just have to force them to change or I have to find players that are going to do that. I thought we did that pretty well at times. Give Texas credit. They are the No. 2 team in the country for a reason.”

Texas scored 29 points off of 22 turnovers in the game. Reigning Big 12 Player of the Year Brooke McCarty led the Longhorns with 15 points, five assists and five steals. As a team, Texas recorded 15 steals in the game.

“There were three areas going into the game that we knew they were very proficient in and those were transition points, second chance points and points off of turnovers,” said Stoehr. “They got a combined 68 points in those three areas. I thought at times in the half court we defended pretty well. But you can’t defend uncontested layups off of turnovers. We just needed to settle down and play in a stance. At some point we have to learn we have to take care of the basketball.”

Junior Marie Delgado and sophomore Daria McCutcheon were two of the bright spots in the game for LA Tech. Delgado scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds while McCutcheon added four points and one assist while providing energy and effort off the bench.

“I was proud to see that,” said Stoehr. “I thought defensively it was one of Maria’s better games as far as knowing where her man was and playing within the team concept. It was good to see. She needs that for her confidence. We need for her to be on the floor because she is a good offensive player and she does give us some fearlessness. It was good to see her in an environment like this come out and compete.

“We had Daria playing the four spot some. She was outmatched, but I thought her energy and her effort was really good. She had a couple of really good attacks of the basket and moved well defensively. She sprinted in transition. I thought Lex Malone had some good minutes. She was playing against some really big players inside, but I thought she slowed down and was patient and took what they gave her. I thought her energy defensively was really good.”

Texas maintained a lead of 30 plus points for the majority of the second half, leading 70-39 at the end of the third quarter.

Junior Taylor Stahly led LA Tech with 13 points, including three more three-pointers.

Tech shot 33 percent (20-61) from the field while Texas hit 47 percent (37-79) of its field goals. The Longhorns outrebounded Tech 49-33.

The Lady Techsters return to action Monday when they host Clemson at 6:30 p.m. at the Thomas Assembly Center.