Texas women’s basketball traveled to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech on Wednesday night. After taking the lead in the first quarter, Tech stormed back, defeating Texas 68-64.

Texas moved into the rankings at No. 25 after beating No. 23 Kansas and No. 15 Iowa State last week, but could not continue its win streak against unranked Texas Tech. 

Graduate student guard Sonya Morris continued her strong shooting, leading Texas with 17 points, including three of the team’s six 3-pointers. Morris has scored at least 10 points in five of six Big 12 games this season and is the team’s most productive 3-point shooter, making just over 40%.

The Longhorns usually break down opponents by forcing turnovers with their strong defense, but the Red Raiders were unphased despite turning the ball over 15 times. 

Sophomore guard Rori Harmon showed her all-around play with four steals. She also contributed 12 points, six rebounds and nine assists. Harmon has played all 120 minutes of the last three games since the loss to Oklahoma State and has only rested for six minutes in all of conference play. 

Despite the aggressive defense from Texas, Tech’s Bre’Amber Scott led all players with 28 points. Scott also brought in seven of Tech’s 35 rebounds. 

Texas Tech was able to draw out 24 fouls by the Longhorns, leading to 22 points on 30 attempted free throws. Texas only shot six free throws the entire game. The Red Raiders stole the ball from the Longhorns 11 times, leading to 13 points off turnovers. 

After the Longhorns controlled the momentum in the first quarter and took a 6-point lead, Texas Tech went on a 7-0 run to start the second quarter and gain control of the game. 

Tech was able to build their lead to 10 points in the third quarter, but not before Texas came creeping back to bring the lead to as low as 3 points. 

The Longhorns were unable to break Texas Tech’s zone defense, but junior forward DeYona Gaston made a name for herself under the basket, bringing in four offensive rebounds and scoring 9 points.

Junior forward Taylor Jones was key under the defensive basket for the Longhorns, blocking three shots and hauling in four rebounds. Jones also had big plays on offense to halt Texas Tech’s third quarter run.  

Toward the end of the third quarter, Texas was able to find some of the momentum it had in the first quarter, ending the quarter with a steal by Harmon who found Gaston for the basket as time expired. 

This play brought Tech down to a 3-point lead, but Texas’ burst of energy was not enough to hold off the Red Raiders. Texas brought the game within a point, but could not regain the lead before time expired. 

With the loss, Texas falls to 4–2 in the Big 12 standings, still in a three-way tie for second. Texas will return to the court Sunday to face Baylor in Waco.