TXST WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Bobcats historic 32-point comeback in 2006 tied by Pitt
This past week, the University of Pittsburgh Panthers Women’s basketball team tied an NCAA record for the largest comeback win, storming back from a 32-point deficit to beat the SMU Mustangs.
The record that was tied belongs to the Texas State Women’s basketball team, which pulled off their own 32-point comeback win, beating the archrival UTSA Roadrunners during the 2005-2006 season.
Former Head Coach Suzanne Fox, who coached the Bobcats from 1997 through 2011, led the team as they made the trip down I-35 for their vaunted showdown against the Roadrunners.
Despite both the Bobcats and the Roadrunners competing for the Southland Conference regular season title, nothing is for sure when the two teams meet.
“The records all go out the window [whether you’re] 0-10 or 10-0 when you’re playing UTSA because of the rivalry,” Fox said. “At that point, the rivalry was still played in the same conference, and when you’re playing the Roadrunners everything goes out the window.
“You want to win, because you’re playing these guys 50 miles down the road, so for us, it’s one of those games that always gives you a boost in confidence, especially in the dramatic fashion in which we came back from so much down. You walked out feeling pretty good about things.”
With 2:18 remaining in the first half, the Bobcats found themselves trailing 40-8 before entering halftime down 42-15.
Looking to create a spark, the Bobcats switched up their defensive strategy in what Fox called their Nuclear Defense.
“We were trying to find something to get this going,” Fox said. “In the second half, we did a lot of full court pressure and stuff like that, and so that’s really what got us going. … I called it nuclear defense and we just came out trapping everything and flying around, trying to create chaos on the floor. Because at that point, when you’re down that many points, you don’t have anything to lose.
“We were able to get UTSA in an uncomfortable position. We were able to get some easy turn- overs and just the whole momentum, just sort of swells on you.
You see yourself cutting into [the deficit].”
While the defensive pressure helped cut into the lead, Fox also talked to the players on not focusing on the full 20 minute second half.
“We would break down halves into segments. Like, we need to win this four minutes, and then we need to win the next four minutes,” Fox said. “The smaller the pieces are, the players were able to think in a four minute span versus, not looking at the whole long 20 minutes. The next four minutes, let’s go out there and cut this lead down by 10.”
By switching to a full court defense in the second half, the Bobcats were able to create more offensive possessions forcing turnovers and grabbing critical offensive rebounds.
“We felt that we played better when we were out in the full court,” Fox said. “Just trying to make it a little bit of havoc. When you don’t have all the most talented players and if they’ve got really good talent like one through five, you may want to speed the game up to get more possessions and have more opportunities to score.
“So we always like to have a lot of possessions and you want to either hit the offensive glass or try to create some turnovers to get more possessions. When we did that, it helped our team be able to get some easy shots because we were really struggling from the floor.”
Slowly the Bobcats started to cut into the Roadrunner lead as the deficit dwindled down to single digits. As Texas State continued to gain momentum and confidence from their strong second half performance, the Roadrunners started to crumble.
“Then once we got rolling, you felt that pressure start to come on UTSA,” Fox said. “Now they’re loosey-goosey, because they’re up 32. So they’re just letting it fly and playing really loose. As that lead started to dwindle, then you saw them sort of tighten up and then we were getting more confidence.”
Texas State outscored UTSA 48-21 in the second half and sent the game into overtime. Tamara Thompson tied it up at 63-63 sinking the game-tying three-pointer with 41 seconds left in the game. Thompson later hit the two game-winning free throws with three seconds left in overtime to seal the Bobcats’ historic win at 73-71.
The comeback victory set a new NCAA record for the largest comeback win in Division I history for women’s basketball, beating the record set by Oregon in 2000, which came back from a 22-point deficit. It now remains one of the two games that feature a team coming back from a 30 plus deficit and defeating their opponent.
Thompson finished the game with a career high 32 points and 15 rebounds. Ashley Riley was second in scoring with 13 points followed by Joyce Ekworomadu with 11 points.
For Fox, the comeback win was a testament to the players and the team culture the Bobcats have.
“It’s just the resiliency of the players and the mental toughness to stay in it,” Fox said. “It’s easy for people to be on the bandwagon when things are going great. It’s really easy to get a good teammate when you’re winning and everybody’s happy about things. But when things are going bad, that’s when you see the true colors of your kids, your team and how much your culture is in there.
“When things are not going well, do they stick together, pull together and stay focused? That’s what this team did. They showed that resiliency, they showed that mental toughness and they bought in. Because of that, they were able to overcome a huge hurdle after being down that far.
The comeback wins were one of the key features for the Bobcats during mid-2000s with games like the historic UTSA victory being a testament to Texas State’s resilience.
“We had other teams, a year or two that got down to 10 to 15, they came back and won,” Fox said. “In those timeouts when you’re down you’re like, ‘Hey guys, remember when we played so-andso, we did this.’ So they could have that point of reference that they can say, ‘Yeah, this isn’t impossible we have done that before.’
[A 32-point deficit] a little bit of a big ask, but when you break it down to smaller pieces, they could mainly wrap their heads around it and out there and get the job done.”
Looking back at the game, it is a reminder for Fox that no matter the hole a team finds themselves in, there is always a way to battle back “No deficit is too great,” Fox said. “You look at all these teams that play you, though not great, you can have a bad quarter, a bad half or whatever. But if you stick to it and your team believes they keep doing the things you’re asking them to do, there’s not a deficit that they can’t overcome.
“For most teams it always is going to start on the defensive end, because you’re shooting bad but you’re playing good defense. You’re hopefully going to get some live-ball turnovers, so hopefully you create some easy offense, or you’re still crashing the glass on offense to get some easy points. That builds your confidence and then hopefully those other shots will start falling for you.”
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
