AUSTIN, Tex. — Weather here Sunday was unseasonably cold with gusty winds, but there wasn’t a rain cloud anywhere in sight.
Inside the Frank Erwin Center on the campus of the University of Texas, a slightly different story. The San Diego State women’s basketball team was raining in three-pointers from every corner of the gym — eight of them in the first half alone — and rendering all wet the favored Longhorns’ home-court advantage in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Tournament.
Led by another brilliant postseason performance by Senior guard Jene Morris, No. 11-seed SDSU advanced to the second round of the NCAA’s for a second-consecutive year, knocking off No. 6-seed Texas, 74-63. Last year, the Aztecs used their home-court advantage to upend favored De Paul in the first round. This time the tables were turned, but by shooting an unconscious 80-percent from the three-point arc in racing to a 14-point halftime lead, SDSU blew through Texas like an unwelcome visitor, leaving behind only a stunned throng dressed in burnt orange.
The Aztecs (22-10) will be looking to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time when they meet No. 3-seed West Virginia here in Tuesday’s second round at 6:40 (Pacific time). Certainly they will be underdogs again against the Big East conference runner-ups, who have posted a 29-5 record this season, and easily beat Lamar, 58-43, in Sunday night’s second game.
“We plan on keeping this thing going, and the way we’re playing, we’re going to have great confidence,” said SDSU Coach Beth Burns. “To come in here and win on Texas’ home floor says a lot about how hard our kids are working and much they believe.”
The first half shooting by the Aztecs was nearly hard-to-believe. A 33-percent, 3-point shooting team on the season, SDSU had made a total of only 10 three’s in sweeping to three wins and the Mountain West Conference tournament championship over a week ago in Las Vegas.
The Aztecs made nearly that many in the opening 11 minutes against the Longhorns. After Texas took an early 4-0 lead, SDSU went on a 12-0 run. Morris, who finished with a season-high 32 points, hit the first three, giving SDSU a 7-4 lead — a lead as it turned out, the Aztecs would never relinquish. Quenese Davis, Morris’ senior running mate in the back court, hit the second three to make it 12-4.
Coco Davis, Quenese’s younger sister, hit the next two, extending the Aztecs lead to 22-10. Morris made another to make it 25-12, then buried a third from the right corner for a 30-12 advantage. Morris’ fourth three — and third in a span of 1:06 — capped the barrage and gave the Aztecs their biggest lead of the night at 33-14 with still 9:44 left before halftime.
All tolled, SDSU hit seven of its first eight from long distance. The blitzkrieged Longhorns called time out to stop the assault, and then went on a 13-0 run themselves to creep back into the game. However, the Aztecs had one last bullet to fire, Allison Duffy nailing SDSU’s eighth three of the half, capping an 11-3 run for a 44-30 halftime lead.
“We’ve had a lot of days off since our last game, and we’ve taken a lot of shots,” Burns said. “Our kids were really ready to play, and they played with great focus. We’re always capable of making shots when we play with the kind of energy we brought to this game.”
Nobody brings more energy than Morris, who put on a dazzling display in last year’s first-round NCAA game, scoring a career-high 35 points to help the Aztecs knock off De Paul. Morris had also tortured Texas during the regular season a year ago, scoring 24 points and coming up with a career-high eight steals as SDSU defeated the then No. 4-ranked and undefeated Longhorns, 60-55, in San Diego.
“We just had no answers for her,” said Texas Coach Gail Goestenkors, whose team was the long Big 12 representative among seven to lose in this year’s first round of the tournament. ”We tried everything, and she (Morris) defeated everything we tried.”
An underlying reason for SDSU’s success was its work on the glass against a Texas team that came into the game as one of the nation’s top rebounding teams. Forward Jessika Bradley grabbed nine boards and four other Aztecs had six or more as SDSU earned a 48-41 advantage. Meanwhile, the Longhorns’ erratic shooting (just 33-percent for the game, 1-for-13 on threes) made it easier for the Aztecs to protect their advantage in the second half. Texas got to within seven points on a couple of occasions, but never closer.
Wide-bodied freshman center Cokie Reed, at 6-foot-4, led the Longhorns with 16 points and nearly fouled-out the entire SDSU front line in the process. Aztec center Paris Johnson fouled out with five points and six rebounds, while both Bradley and Duffy had four fouls. Duffy, despite playing with a bad back, gutted out 25 minutes off the bench scoring 11 points to go along with six boards.
Morris also committed four fouls in a game that took over 2 1/2-hours to play because a total of 46 fouls were called. That led to 66 free throws attempted by the two teams, 35 by SDSU and 31 by Texas. The Aztecs converted on just 21 of their 35 charity tries, but Morris was money at the line, hitting 9-of-11 in the last three minutes to keep Texas at bay.
– Ello
Craig Elsten -
Chainsaw -
