ustxtxb_obs_1979_03_16_50_00018-00000_000.pdf

Texas women on the move Fast break a. C By Gary Underwood Nacogdoches, Austin Rosie Walker, the 6’1 post for Stephen F. Austin, positioned herself at the high post and took a pass from her point guard. She spun to her right, drove to the basket against Retha Swindell, the University of Texas defender, and scored. Hustling down the court on defense, Walker darted to her left and intercepted a UT pass. SFA returned quickly to the attack and Barbara Brown hit a 15-foot jumper. In 35 seconds SFA had surged to an eight-point lead. With the score 64-56 and only 1:38 left in the game, the Ladyjacks of SFA had cinched an upset over the Longhorns in the February finals of the Texas AIAW \(Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for final score of 70-59, avenged an earlier 69-72 loss to UT in the finals of the Texas Classic tournament in Austin. The 7,100 fans on hand in the SFA Coliseum to witness this second shootout of the ’78’79 season -between the top two teams in Texas had good reason to believe, by the time the final buzzer sounded, that these were in fact the top two teams in the country, for they had just seen intercollegiate women’s basketball at its best. You probably wouldn’t know it from reading your local sports page or catching the 10 o’clock sports report, but Texas has three women’s collegiate basketball teams ranked among the top 20 in the nation. In fact, they are currently ranked second, third and 11th, and while the University of Texas at Austin is one others are not big-time schools with big-budget sports programsthey are the Stephen F. Austin State University land Baptist College Flying Queens These three teams and others around the state have made Texas one of the premier regions in the U.S. for highcaliber women’s basketball, and they have done it on a shoestring, generally playing second fiddle to men’s teams everywhere except on the basketball courtwhere they take second place to no one. It’s time we paid attention. Outdrawing the Lumberjacks The key to the Ladyjacks’ rise to the top this season is Rosie Walker, who transferred to SFA after leading Panola Junior College of Carthage, Texas, to two national championships while she was earning honors as a two-time National Junior College All-American. Photos, top to bottom: SFA star Rosie Walker powers her way past UT’s Retha Swindell en route to Ladyjacks’ February victory; Jackie Swaim, Longhorns’ top scoring threat, drives toward basket against SFA defenders; speedy Linda Waggoner leads UT fast break. 18 MARCH 16, 1979 .7,tre0Prt ,0