Just over a week ago, the Texas women’s basketball team suffered a heartbreaking loss to Oklahoma after leading by 12 in the final minutes of regulation. On Sunday, the Longhorns nearly squandered another lead, but ultimately squeezed by TCU with a 69-60 win.
After sprinting out to a 43-27 halftime lead, Texas had a 20-point lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. However, TCU orchestrated a 14-0 run over a six-minute period that brought them within five points of the Longhorns.
Despite the near-upset, head coach Vic Schaefer was proud of his team’s relentless effort to close the game and the regular season.
“I’m really, really proud of them,” Schaefer said. “I know they’re tired, and they played their hearts out today. We’ll learn from it.”
Lack of experience, combined with lackadaisical decision-making on Texas’ part, allowed TCU to claw their way back into the game, Schaefer said.
“We’ve got some young players that aren’t really experienced,” Schaefer said. “Our decision making is shaky sometimes.”
As messy as the ending turned out to be, Texas eventually pulled away with the victory. Aside from a disappointing final quarter, there were many positives that came from the game.
Led by junior center Charli Collier, the Longhorns had one of their best shooting performances of the season. Texas hit 48.2% of their shots from the field combined with 41.7% from beyond the arc.
For a team whose identity lies on the defensive side of the ball, the offensive explosion could spark the team heading into postseason play.
“That first half offensively, that’s as good as we’ve played offensively in a while,” Schaefer said. “They shared the ball, their chemistry was outstanding, and we made some shots.”
While Collier continued her season-long excellence, posting 18 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, it was junior forward Audrey Warren who turned heads.
Warren joined Collier with a double-double of her own, posting 18 points and 12 rebounds in what was arguably her best performance of the year.
“It’s great to be a hustle player, that player that does all the ‘little’ work,” Warren said. “But being able to put points on the scoreboard for my team, rebounding, all of that is great. I’m glad I could help out.”
Warren’s fourth-quarter playmaking helped Texas close out the Horned Frogs in the final minutes, and she notched five of her team’s last nine points.
As the regular season came to an end, Schaefer praised his team’s responsibility, as not one of his players contracted COVID-19 while on campus. Many teams across all sports have suffered detrimental losses during this abnormal sports year.
“Not one of them. Not one has gotten COVID(-19) while we’ve been on campus,” Schaefer said. “They have done a great job of doing what they needed to do to make sure this season happened.”
As the Longhorns’ postseason begins Friday against Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament, Schaefer believes it is critical to take it one game at a time.
“You can’t look at the top of the mountain,” Schaefer said. “(You’ve got to) take every step, step by step. When you start looking up at the top, that’s when you miss a step and fall to the bottom.”
