Senior forward DeYona Gaston made her comeback to the No. 5 Texas women’s basketball team after suffering an injury in the Orange-White scrimmage on Oct. 24 with a nine-point, five-rebound performance. The preseason All Big 12 player wrapped up her first game of the season with Texas’ 106-62 victory over Long Beach State.
Fans were on their feet as Gaston came in for sophomore forward Amina Muhammad, who had solid performances replacing Gaston in the starting lineup and was named “most improved player” by head coach Vic Schaefer.
“Our team has played really well without (Gaston),” Schaefer said. “Amina has been super, Amina brings something different to the table. So we feel real fortunate to have (Gaston) who can play four and five. You have Mina and (Aaliyah Moore) who are three pretty good four players and (Gaston) can play five too to help with (Khadija Faye and Taylor Jones).”
Gaston went straight to the basket and scored four consecutive points for Texas. She had been cleared for practice for a week prior to the game.
“I tried to go hard in practice so I could go back to that good shape and good basketball,” Gaston said. “I did get tired but I tried to push myself a little bit harder, get that extra mindset.”
Senior forward Taylor Jones, who struggled to score against UConn in the previous game, was back to her usual double figures points. At the end of the first half, Jones had 15 points while Long Beach State had a total of 18, and finished the game with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
For Long Beach State head coach Amy Wright, the UConn game being point-dominated by junior guard Rori Harmon and freshman forward Madison Booker rather than Jones showed the depth of Schaefer’s squad.
“They have an orchestra of offense,” Wright said. “You can pick the winds, you can pick the trombones and you can try to shut them both down, but then they got a flute that’s just gonna go off, and they have the best conductor in the country. Rori Harmon is the best point guard in the country.”
Harmon, named AP Player of the Week after Sunday’s win, scored 17 points against Long Beach State.
Despite the three-digit win, Schaefer wasn’t entirely pleased with his team’s performance, especially in free throws, as the team went 25 for 42.
“It’s a focus thing,” Schaefer said. “We were 13 for 17 the other night against Connecticut. We’ve had some games where we’ve shot well but I just think it goes in with tonight’s game. It was kind of a wreck.”
Texas will head to Tucson to face Arizona on Dec. 13.
Editor’s note: The original version of this article said Texas will face Arizona on Dec. 6. It has been updated to say Texas will face Arizona on Dec 13. The Texan regrets this error.
