It has not been the finest weekend for the Texas Athletics faithful, stemming from the Longhorns football falling in ugly fashion to Georgia on Saturday night.
But that did not stop Texas fans from showing up in Moody Center on Sunday evening in search of a rebound from the defeat on the gridiron; they got one in the form of Texas women’s basketball dominance, with the Longhorns defeating the Texas Southern Tigers, 111-45.
Head coach Vic Schaefer put the same starting five on the court that he had fielded the previous three games: graduate guard Rori Harmon, sophomore guard Jordan Lee, freshman guard Aaliyah Crump, junior forward Madison Booker and junior forward Breya Cunningham. The unit brought the heat.
Texas jumped out to an early 17-5 lead by the first under-five-minute media timeout while shooting 77.8% from the field. By halftime, the Longhorns held a 35-point advantage.
Senior forward Teya Sidberry, who transferred to the Forty Acres this offseason, jointly led Texas in scoring alongside Booker and Crump with 18 points. Going six-for-six from the field and four-of-five on free throws, Sidberry packed a punch off the bench for Schaefer’s squad on Sunday.
“This is the vision I had when we recruited (Sidberry),” Schaefer said postgame. “The kid’s the all-time leading scorer in the history of Utah high school basketball. I keep saying that. I want to see that kid — I don’t know what transpired in the last three years, but I know this kid can really be special. She’s a great young lady, but I need her to be a monster on the floor too; it just changes our team.”
Across the contest, Texas continually turned defense into offense through its full-court press and aggressiveness. The Longhorns racked up 14 steals and forced Texas Southern into 33 turnovers and 32 personal fouls. Texas reached 50 points off turnovers, found 14 second-chance points on 18 offensive rebounds and converted 23 fastbreak points.
Texas’ performance was encapsulated by plays like Harmon’s interception off the inbounds and quick distribution to Crump for a three early in the second quarter. Another came on a 10-second backcourt violation by the Tigers later on that earned a roar from the Texas faithful in the crowd.
But the loudest reaction from within Moody came on senior guard Sarah Graves’ three-pointer, her first points of the young season, soon after she entered the game in the fourth quarter. In the end, the Longhorns got scoring contributions from 10 different players as they tallied 111 points on 57.7% efficiency.
Still, a clear concern remains following the beatdown of Texas Southern: free-throw shooting.
“I told them when we came out from the locker room for tip, I said, ‘Let’s go shoot 40 free throws,’” Schaefer said. “Well we did. We didn’t make but 24 of them … We’ll keep shooting them in practice and figure it out.”
Texas is now just nine days away from a top-five meeting with No. 3 UCLA. Schaefer emphasized the need for improvement from the stripe heading into high-caliber competition, saying you can’t expect to win when shooting 60% on free throws.
The Longhorns, now 4-0, host the James Madison Dukes on Wednesday in their final preparatory matchup ahead of heading to Las Vegas for the Players Era Championship. Texas beat James Madison by 31 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, last season.
