Central Texas elementary schoolers brought life to the Moody Center Tuesday as No. 10 Texas women’s basketball beat Oral Roberts 112-74.
The 40 Acres Field Trip is an annual event hosted by Texas Athletics where elementary school students get free tickets to a women’s basketball game and visit the UT campus to encourage young students to pursue higher education.
“There was a little boy that came to us in the locker room, and he had a note card of a motivational speech,” senior forward Taylor Jones said. “It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”
The children brought energy throughout the entire game. Whether it was after a Texas point, seeing their friend participating in timeout challenges on the court, dancing or singing happy birthday to mascot Hook ‘Em, the children’s high-pitched loud cheers rang through the Moody Center.
“It was really loud,” junior guard Rori Harmon said. “I like kids a lot. They have a lot of energy, and it’s almost like you want to bring (them) back on Sunday all over again.”
In front of the energetic crowd, Jones opened the scoreboard with six consecutive points. Over Thanksgiving break, Jones was named a Tournament All-Star of the Paradise Jam.
“She’s hard to guard,” Oral Roberts head coach Kelsi Musick said about Jones. “She’s so big, and she keeps it high. (Texas) is just really skilled.”
Texas dominated the first two quarters, going into halftime leading 51-24, with Jones and freshman forward Madison Booker reaching double figures with 11 and 10 points each. After scoring 16 points in the third quarter, Jones finished the game with a new career high of 27.
Jones tied a program record for most field goals without a miss, going 11-11. She has a 73.2% conversion rate this season.
“The numbers show that it was a good game for me,” Jones said. “But I feel like our guards did a really good job at attacking and giving me great passes.”
After struggling in the first half, Oral Roberts came back in the second, even outscoring the Longhorns in the fourth quarter.
“I just have to really give Oral Roberts credit,” Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said. “As bad as their first half was, their second half was really good, and I thought we had some problems with continuity.”
Paradise Jam MVP Harmon was two rebounds away from a triple-double, scoring 10 points and dishing out 13 assists. She now has 14 career double-digit assist games.
“Assisting my teammates is great,” Harmon said. “I had 13 because of (Jones), because of Madison, because we have a lot of people that shot a lot of shots and they made it. I’m just thankful for my teammates, there’s no such thing as an assist if you don’t make the shot.”
Texas will face its first ranked opponent and biggest challenge so far on Sunday as No. 11 UConn will visit the Moody Center.
