McCarty, Higgs keep Horns going
AUSTIN — As Brooke McCarty runs, so does Texas. The diminutive senior guard has the Longhorns racing back into the Sweet 16.
McCarty scored 15 points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, and Lashann Higgs scored 19 points as Texas booked its fourth consecutive trip to the Sweet 16 on Monday night with an 85-65 win over Arizona State in the women’s NCAA Tournament.
No. 2 seed Texas will face No. 3 seed UCLA in the Kansas City (Mo.) Regional on Friday night.
“This is where Texas should be every single year,” McCarty said.
Higgs had 15 points in the first half, and McCarty took over in the third quarter with 10 points in a 14-2 run that pushed Texas to a big lead and never let the Sun Devils recover. McCarty had a pair of 3-pointers in the run, and her nifty drives and assists made sure Texas (28-6) avoided the same kind of home-court upsets that hit several host teams earlier in the evening.
“It was Brooke. I started smiling halfway through it because I realized this kid was going off,” said Texas senior guard Ariel Atkins, who scored 12 and matched McCarty’s five assists.
Seventh-seeded Arizona State had played eventual national champion South Carolina within a minute of a huge upset in the second round last season but saw any hopes of catching Texas disappear in the decisive third quarter.
McCarty, even at just 5-4 and the smallest player on the court, was able to snag long rebounds and use them to kick-start Texas in transition. The Longhorns are one of the top rebounding teams in the country and dominated the Sun Devils on the boards 40-19 in a physical matchup.
“Our whole game plan was, ‘Don’t give them points in the paint. … We knew from the opening tip, their whole game plan was rip and go on us,” Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We weren’t tough enough.”
Kianna Ibis scored 27 to lead Arizona State (22-13), an effort that kept the Sun Devils within 40-35 at halftime. She scored just eight over the final two quarters.
Texas hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive year. The Longhorns are 48-6 at the Frank Erwin Center over the last three seasons, including six wins in the tournament.
The Longhorns’ fourth straight year in the Sweet 16 continues a resurgence for a program that produced the first women’s undefeated national champion in the 1985-86 season. Texas hasn’t been back to the Final Four since 2003.
“You can tell they expect this,” Texas coach Karen Aston said. “I know they want bigger and better things, but this is a great accomplishment. I told them in the locker room not to take this for granted.”