The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

A SEASON high scoring effort from Lashann Higgs led the Texas Longhorns women’s basketball programme to their signature win of the season.

Higgs finished with 19 points off the bench and the Longhorns improved to 5-4 with a 66-60 win over the No. 17 Tenesseee Volunteers last night on the road in Knoxville, Tennessee.

It was the first loss for the Lady Volunteers this season as the NCAA’s Big 12/SEC Challenge between the two conferences continued.

Higgs scored 12 of her points in the second quarter as the Longhorns put together a 10-0 run to grab a 12-point lead into the last four minutes before halftime. The Lady Volunteers still responded but still trailed 42-36 at the half.

Texas only scored eight points in a low scoring third quarter for both teams, but they took a 50-49 lead into the fourth.

Higgs was key in another run, this time in the fourth when her score with 8:56 to play started an 8-0 run capped by a pair of Sug Sutton buckets that had the Longhorns on top for good at 58-53.

Higgs also came up with a key steal with 22 seconds remaining as Texas held Tennessee without a field goal for the last 2:22 of the game.

The senior guard shot 8-14 from the field.

“I thought it was a real gutsy performance on the part of our team in a lot of ways,” Texas head coach Karen Aston said “Sug and Lashann looked a lot more like themselves today. They’re the leaders of our team. I’m just really proud of our team. We struggled, but I think everybody knows that. It’s just a process when you have players that are new and those that return from injury. I’ve been preaching to them to stay with the process, and we’ll get better and better every day. They’re trying to do that, and this was a reward for that.”

Texas and Tennessee met for the 41st time in the history of the two programmes with the Lady Vols leading the all-time series 25-16. Tennessee now holds a 12-7 advantage when the game is played in Knoxville.

Texas breaks for final examinations before returning to action on Wednesday, December 18 when the Longhorns play host to Ohio.

Higgs is averaging 9.3 points per game this season.

The Big 12 approved a hardship waiver for Higgs in the offseason, which made the guard eligible to return to the Longhorns for the 2019-20 season.

In November 2018, Higgs was diagnosed with a season-ending torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee. Recovery time for the injury is traditionally 9-12 months.

She told KTXS ABC affiliate, that her return to the court has been long awaited.

“I’ve been waiting all year for this. It means so much to me and I’m just really grateful to be able to do this again. When a person gets hurt, it’s kind of like your body shuts off, and your mind kind of shuts off as well. So it’s more of getting back into things and rebuilding that chemistry with my teammates,” she said. “Just put it all out there. Because you don’t really expect to get hurt. You never know when it’ll be your last.”