Texas beats UTEP 79-40

SAN DIEGO (AP)—Texas coach Gail Goestenkors was worried about her team being rusty after a 10-day layoff.

The fourth-ranked Longhorns quickly eased their coach’s concerns with a 79-40 rout of Texas El Paso on Sunday in the Surf ‘N Slam Classic.

Kathleen Nash scored 13 of her 15 points in the first half and Ashley Lindsey added 12 points for Texas (11-0), which continued its best start since the 1985-86 team finished 34-0 to win the national title. The Longhorns played their first game since beating then No. 21 Arizona State on Dec. 18.

“I was very concerned,” Goestenkors said. “We had a couple of practices out here and hadn’t done a great job. But overall, I was very pleased.”

The Longhorns will face host San Diego State in Tuesday night’s championship game after the Aztecs beat Sacramento State 75-47.

Texas used a stifling defense to jump out to a 14-2 lead as it held the Miners to one field goal in the first 7 1/2 minutes. The Longhorns, who held a 47-22 halftime lead, limited UTEP to 30 percent shooting in the first half.

“We had outstanding pressure on every pass and I think the pressure bothered them,” Goestenkors said.

The Miners were even worse in the second half, hitting just 3-for-19 (15.8 percent) from the field, to finish the game at 24.5 percent. UTEP went 3-for-19 from 3-point range.

“When you take time off, it’s hard to get back the intensity,” said Earnesia Williams, who had nine points and eight rebounds. “We pride ourselves on defense and rebounding. Our pressure on defense definitely hurt them.”

Briana Green scored 12 points to lead UTEP (6-6) and Dietra Caldwell added 10.

“Texas is a terrific team, one of the top teams in the country,” UTEP coach Keitha Adams said. “I won’t be surprised to see them in the Final Four.”

Nash, coming off a career high 27-point game when she set a school record by hitting all 12 free throws, went 4-for-4 from the line and has made 26 consecutive free throws.

“We came out with a lot of intensity,” Nash said. “We executed our plays really well and it made things easy.”

Texas remains one of six undefeated teams in the Top 25.

“I think we are in a good place,” Goestenkors said. “We got good play out of our post players tonight. Earnesia and Ashley gave us good minutes.”

The Longhorns held a 48-26 rebounding edge, led by Kristen Nash’s nine, and made 22-of-23 free throws compared to 7-of-8 for the Miners.