As the last seconds went down in the second quarter, Texas freshman guard Bryanna Preston snatched the ball from Missouri, stopping the Tigers from going into the third quarter with anything more than a two-point lead.
It was a shift in momentum that the No. 5 Longhorns desperately needed, after getting off to a sloppy start in the first half of the game against the unranked Tigers.
“I think that possession leading to the half got us going to change our mindset, change how we’re playing, like our pace of the game,” sophomore forward Madison Booker said. “That possession right there, that stop on defense, really kind of got us going.”
It took Booker 12 minutes and 52 seconds to make her first shot of the night, but once she got going, the game turned around and ended in a 70-61 win for the Longhorns.
Texas’ slow start against Mizzou is not its first one of the season, winning against Tennessee by 4 and against Ole Miss by 3.
As head coach Vic Schaefer always says, winning in the Southeastern Conference is hard. And this was definitely a hard-fought game for a depleted Texas bench that was missing senior forward Aaliyah Moore and an athletic trainer, both out with the flu.
Senior forward Taylor Jones also helped keep Texas in the running all night, especially with the nine points she put up in the first quarter. Jones ended the game with a team high of 17 points, living up to the SEC Player of the Week title she received on Tuesday following standout performances in the two previous ranked wins.
Schaefer holds his team to a high standard, regardless of the opponent or circumstance. Veteran players like senior guard Shay Holle understand this and know the level the team played at in the first half wasn’t good enough for Schaefer or them.
“My mindset is always just to try to play to that standard,” Holle said. “I know how he wants things done and what he wants done, so I try to execute.”
Although it may not have been the prettiest or smoothest win the Longhorns have had this season, they still got to add to the win column at the end of the night.