The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE lone Bahamian left in the NCAA Tournament, Lashann Higgs continues the best post-season run of her collegiate career.

Higgs scored 19 and the Texas Longhorns advanced to their fourth consecutive Sweet 16 with an 85-65 win over Arizona State at the Longhorns home gym - the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

Higgs’ team-high scoring effort also came on one of her most efficient games of the season as she shot 9-12 from the field.

She scored 17 in the first half to send the Longhorns into the break with a 40-35 lead.

“I realised that at the ball reversal there were lots of driving lanes. So I tried to take advantage of it. Just tried to be aggressive for my team,” she said.

Texas will head to Kansas City, Missouri to face the No.3 UCLA Bruins 9:30pm local time tomorrow night. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN2.

The No. 2 seed in the Kansas City Region, the Longhorns advanced through round one with an 83-54 win over the No. 15 Maine Black Bears. Higgs finished with 15 points and dished four assists in 23 minutes. “I would say that it’s having more discipline on the offensive end,” she said.

“The discipline to reverse the ball. The discipline to make the right pass. I would just say it’s becoming more of a team effort. So I think that’s the reason why our offence has improved.”

In two NCAA Tournament games this season, Higgs is averaging a team high 17.0 points per game and shooting a squad-best 78.9 per cent from the field.In her first two seasons with the Longhorns, Higgs has seen her teams eliminated in the Sweet 16.

In 2016 as a freshman, she finished with a then career high 19 points in the Longhorns’ 86-65 loss to the eventual champion UConn Huskies. As a sophomore in 2017, it was a 77-66 loss to the Stanford Cardinal. Higgs finished with five points and three rebounds.

Texas, making its 31st all-time NCAA Tournament appearance, improves to 42-29 (.592) all-time in NCAA Tournament play, including a 10-4 mark under head coach Karen Aston.

“I’m just incredibly proud of our basketball team. The energy and enthusiasm that they’re playing the game with right now, and then just the fact that this is our fourth year in a row to go to the Sweet 16. You can almost tell that - I don’t want to say they’re getting used to it, because we told them not to ever take it for granted, but you can tell that they expect this.

“I know they want bigger and better things, but this is a great accomplishment for these particular seniors. Just because all four years they were able to do this,” Aston said.

“But, again, there’s a few upsets came about today, and I told them in the locker room not to ever take this for granted, or not to appreciate how great of a season and, in particular these two, how great their careers have been. Really, really proud of our team.”

As a junior this season, Higgs has stepped into a leadership role and started all 27 appearances.

She averaged 12.9 points, 2.6 assists, 3.2 rebounds, all career highs. She also had the best shooting season of her career at 54 per cent from the field, 33 per cent from the three-point line and 74 per cent from the free throw line.