Though phone flashlights illuminated across Moody Center in the lead-up to Friday night’s contest, it took a moment for Texas women’s basketball to feed off the electricity brought by its home fans among the 8,747 in attendance.
In its first matchup against a ranked opponent of the young 2025-26 campaign, No. 4 Texas knew the No. 24 Richmond Spiders would be no gimme of an early-season home game.
“This is one of those games that you know a lot of Power Fours won’t schedule because they are so good,” head coach Vic Schaefer said earlier in the week.
The Spiders showed their worth early, converting on Texas’ sloppy play to take an 8-3 lead less than four minutes in. Richmond held on to the lead for the remainder of the first quarter, going into the second up 16-14 and holding the Longhorns scoreless from behind the arc.
But Texas returned to the court focused for the second, going on an 11-0 run in 3:36 of game time to cause a Richmond timeout and earn a commanding lead it would not lose throughout the remainder of the game.
The Longhorns went on to comfortably defeat the Spiders 85-56.
“I am so proud of my team, how hard they played tonight, to hold (Richmond) to 56 points … We didn’t play great. We didn’t play well all the time. I think we have a lot to clean up, but I thought the mistakes we made, we were trying to do things right and playing really hard,” Schaefer said postgame.
What the Longhorns conceded in the first quarter reversed course in the second. Texas took seven turnovers off of the Spiders and played a physical brand of basketball that sourced seven Richmond personal fouls. Through the first half, Texas tallied 12 points off turnovers and 11 second-chance points.
The Longhorns took an 11-point lead into the half and extended it consistently throughout the third and fourth quarters. Junior forward Madison Booker led the way for the Longhorns with 22 points, 12 rebounds and six steals.
Booker spoke postgame about the way Schaefer prepared her and the team to force turnovers against Richmond’s five-out offensive playstyle.
“Richmond is a very smart team. They move around a lot; they don’t stop moving ever,” Booker said. “I think for this game, it was more of just attention to details. They’re backdooring every time. So I think just knowing what Coach Schaefer told us about when people backdoor, we can keep them on our front shoulder. And I think we did that well.”
Texas’ disciplined defense translated into 14 points on the fast break and 26 total off turnovers. The Longhorns’ suffocation defensively didn’t solely come in the half-court. Schaefer’s team kept up a full-court pressure that Richmond head coach Aaron Roussell acknowledged postgame wore his team down. He applauded the work of point guard Rori Harmon and company in that area.
“The amount of pressure that (Harmon) puts on your point guard, that amount of things that we had to do just to get into our offense today,” Roussell said. “We can talk all we want about what we wanted to do … but I think that’s a lot of just how they play. They don’t let you get into your sets.”
Richmond is one of three repeat non-conference Division I opponents that the Longhorns are facing this season in the back half of a home-and-home series. Texas took on the Spiders in Virginia last year, escaping with a 65-54 victory. The two others are James Madison, home on Nov. 19, and South Dakota State, away on Dec. 21.
To Schaefer, matchups against Richmond have valuable takeaways that can transfer to the later Southeastern Conference schedule.
“I think the thing you learn off of a game like this that carries into the SEC is the communication,” Schaefer said postgame. “It’s the focus defensively, for 20, 22 seconds. I’m not sure there’s any SEC teams that play five out like they do, where their fives can step out and shoot the three. But the focus that it takes to guard that group, it is really challenging.”
Texas returns to the Moody Center to face 0-2 Louisiana Lafayette on Nov. 10.
