Final
Mississippi St. 55, Texas 73
Nov 27, 2009 - 4:55 AM ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands (AP) -- Ashleigh Fontenette scored 20 points to lead No. 13 Texas to a 73-55 victory over No. 19 Mississippi State on Thursday night in the Paradise Jam.Fontenette was 9 for 10 from the field for Texas (3-1), which used a 10-0 run to take a 33-24 lead, its largest lead of the first half, before Mississippi State's Mary Kathryn Govero hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to close the gap to six at 33-27.
The Longhorns used a 14-4 spurt to start the second half and put the game out of reach. They led 65-39 midway through the period before Mississippi State closed the gap.
Brittainey Raven added 14 points for Texas, and Kathleen Nash had 12.
Armelie Lumanu led Mississippi State (4-1) with 14 points, and Alexis Rack had 13.
The Longhorns were eliminated by the Lady Bulldogs in the first round of the NCAA tournament last March.
"This was a great team effort tonight," Texas coach Gail Goestenkors said. "This was a chance for us to show how much we've grown as a team. (Mississippi State) returned all of its starters, and that's a veteran team. This win really shows how far we've come from last year to this point."
Texas outrebounded Mississippi State 45-33.
"We've been telling the team all week that the team with the most rebounds after 40 minutes would be the team that would win this game," Goestenkors said. "Mississippi State had done a great job on the boards up until this point, and we hadn't done a great job."
- NCAA WOMENS BB
MISSISSIPPI ST (19) 55
TEXAS (13) 73 FINAL
Nov 26 9:56 PM - NCAA WOMENS BB
MISSISSIPPI ST (19) 27
TEXAS (13) 33 HALFTIME
Nov 26 8:51 PM
Related News
- UConn heads to 9th straight Final Four after beating Texas Mar 28
- Texas-UConn Preview Mar 27
- Auriemma has no apologies for UConn's dominance Mar 27
- Texas comes from behind to beat UCLA 72-64 in Bridgeport Mar 26
- UConn advances with record rout, beats Miss State 98-38 Mar 26
- Mississippi St.-UConn Preview Mar 26
- Mississippi State set to take on top-seed UConn Mar 26
- UCLA-Texas Preview Mar 25
- UCLA and Texas play in Bridgeport's "other" semifinal Mar 25
- Atkins and Texas overpowers Missouri 73-55 to Sweet 16 Mar 22
- No. 5 Mississippi St beats No. 4 Michigan State 74-72 Mar 20
- Missouri-Texas Preview Mar 20