After trailing for three quarters, No. 10 Texas cut Oklahoma’s lead to one point, 85-84, with less than one minute to play. The Longhorn faithful stood as one, making as much noise as possible, trying to will Texas to a victory over rival Oklahoma. But a wide-open corner three by Oklahoma’s senior guard Lexy Keys vacuumed the energy out of the Moody Center and caused fans wearing burnt orange to head for the exits.
The score now read 88-84; after a few Oklahoma free throws and a three from freshman forward Madison Booker, the buzzer sounded as a graduate guard Shaylee Gonzales’ three fell short of the rim, barely grazing the net. After the game, head coach Vic Schaefer questioned the heart of his team.
“I don’t care where I’m coaching,” Schaefer said. “I don’t care if I’m at Timbuktu. You ain’t gonna play for me like that. That is not acceptable.”
At the end of the first quarter, Texas led 23-17. However, the Longhorns didn’t take the lead until the three-minute mark in the first. Although the quarter ended with Texas on top, the Longhorns had no answer for senior guard Nevaeh Tot who, on multiple occasions, shredded the Texas defense with her intense pace and stellar passing. Tot found shooters behind the three-point line after driving hard into the paint. Booker looks back on the Sooner’s final three as a problem that happened all night long.
“It was happening all game, miscommunication, us helping (on defense) at the wrong time and not being aware of shooters,” Booker said.
Booker scored a career-high 29 points in her first rivalry game against Oklahoma, including six rebounds and three assists. Yet, Booker would assess her performance tonight as extremely poor.
“Horrible, 29 (points), yes. Cool,” Booker said. “Defense-wise, I wasn’t present.”
The 91 points Oklahoma scored is a first for Schaefer at Texas, as the last time his team allowed over 90 points in a regular season game was in the 2012-13 season with Mississippi State. Schaefer was at a loss for words after the game.
“We didn’t play well tonight, we gave up 91 points,” Schaefer said. ”Like that’s absurd. I don’t even have an answer for that.”
Coach Schaefer also apologized to all those who attended the game, as he believes the team didn’t match the energy the Texas fans gave them.
“They (the fans) tried to will us and cheered a lot harder than we played for,” Schaefer said. “Bottom line at the end of the day we didn’t play very hard.”
Schaefer places the blame for the loss and lack of effort on himself and his team.
“I’ve obviously not done a good job coaching them and teaching them, we were really undisciplined,” said Schaefer.
As for the final couple minutes where both the offense and defense started to click, that made no difference in the eyes of coach Schaefer.
“We happen to, with five minutes to go, decide to try to play a little bit better,” Schaefer said. “That doesn’t do anything for me except show me that you just didn’t want to do it the first 35 (minutes). So that’s not acceptable.”
The Longhorns now have three losses in conference play and sit fifth in the Big 12. Texas is back in the Moody Center on Saturday to take on the Cincinnati Bearcats.
