Texas women sparked by freshman, fourth-quarter defense in win over No. 15 Iowa State

The Texas Longhorns had a very good week.

Junior forward DeYona Gaston scored 17 points and Texas led throughout much of a 68-53 win over Iowa State on Sunday afternoon. With the victory at Moody Center, Texas remained atop the congested Big 12 standings.

The 15-point win came at the expense of an Iowa State team that was ranked 15th in the Associated Press' poll. Five days earlier, Texas had earned a 72-59 win over No. 23 Kansas.

"I just think that we've been basically attacking our (scouting report), and we've been playing hard in practice," Gaston said. "I think our confidence is going to keep building if we keep playing hard and keep attacking people like we've been doing."

Texas recorded its 13th win of the season in front of a season-high crowd of 6,405. That crowd had plenty to cheer about in the fourth quarter as Texas extended the 52-47 lead with which it entered the final frame. The loudest rounds of applause may have been elicited by the UT defense.

In the fourth quarter, Texas point guard Rori Harmon swiped the basketball three times from Big 12 assists leader Emily Ryan. Gaston had a thunderous block of Iowa State center Izzi Zingaro and later swatted away a shot attempted by Ashley Joens. After the game, UT coach Vic Schaefer remarked that "you're doing something now when you hold that group to six (fourth-quarter) points."

"I think we just all locked in and realized that we need to start pulling the lead now," Harmon said. "To do that, we need to get stops."

With Texas leading 56-49 in the fourth quarter, Iowa State drew a size mismatch when the 6-foot-1 Joens found herself being defended by the 5-6 Harmon. Joens drove to the hoop, but Amina Muhammad stepped in with some help defense and forced a turnover. That led to a fast break opportunity that ended with a layup by Sonya Morris.

A 6-foot-4 freshman forward, Muhammad logged 22 minutes of playing time. Many of those minutes were spent defending Joens, who was one of six players voted to the AP's preseason All-America team. Muhammad also contributed six points and seven rebounds.

"Amina played very well on Joens," Harmon said. "A freshman stepping up and playing an All-American like that, it's very great for her."

Before the season started, the eight players that Texas brought to a local media day were asked to name a teammate that would stand out this season. Gaston picked Muhammad because of her toughness.

Gaston's opinion of Muhammad hasn't changed over the weeks. On Sunday, she laughed while talking about how Muhammad is "hard to get around" in a box-out drill that the Longhorns often run at practices.

"Yeah, she's tough. And not even like physical, like mentally, she's also tough too," Gaston said. "When we're in practice, she's always battling, always battling with me and all the posts."

After not trailing at all against Kansas, Texas faced three early deficits Sunday. The Longhorns, though, had to deal with only one tie after a Gaston basket made it a 7-6 game with 7:26 left in the first quarter.

Offensively, Texas complemented Gaston's 17 points with 11-point performances from both Shaylee Gonzales and Morris. Seven Longhorns shot at least 50% from the field. Harmon made up for her six turnovers with seven assists.

Texas held Iowa State to a 21-for-52 shooting performance, and the Cyclones hit only four of their 15 3-pointers. Joens recorded a game-high 21 points, but no other Cyclone reached a double-digit scoring total. Pestered by Harmon all afternoon, Ryan had a season-high eight turnovers and just three assists.

"Emily made a couple bad decisions, but I think a lot of it was we weren't moving into some stuff quick enough," Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. "(Harmon is) a great on-ball defender. It's a great defensive team as we all knew."

Last week, Texas didn't receive a single vote on any of the 28 ballots that the AP uses for its weekly poll. Iowa State and Kansas were joined by No. 18 Baylor and No. 19 Oklahoma in the most-recent ranking. But a wild week saw Baylor lose twice to unranked Oklahoma State and West Virginia. Kansas followed up its shortcoming against Texas with a loss at Oklahoma while Iowa State split its two games.

Oklahoma went 2-0 for the week and has now won four of its five conference games. Texas has matched that 4-1 record. Four schools — Baylor, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and West Virginia — are 3-2 in Big 12 play, and Kansas and Texas Tech are both 2-3.

"I think it's going to be similar to what you've seen on the men's side," Fennelly said of the conference. "I don't know that there's going to be any scores that really shock anyone. ... I think it'll be a league that you're going to have to show up and certainly play well to win and I don't care if it's home or away."

Notes: Texas (13-5) next travels to Texas Tech and Baylor. ... Under Schaefer, Texas is now 7-0 against Iowa State. ... Joens grabbed six rebounds for Iowa State (11-4) and broke a first-place tie in her school's record books for career rebounds. During last year's trip to Austin, Joens became Iowa State's all-time leading scorer.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas women bully Iowa State in Big 12 basketball contest