In what was shaping to be the final possession of the first half, UCLA guard Charlisse Leger-Walker drove to the left of graduate guard Rori Harmon and was met by a charge-seeking sophomore forward Justice Carlton. But instead of floating up a shot, Leger-Walker attempted to find teammate senior guard Gabriela Jacquez in the right corner.
Not on sophomore guard Jordan Lee’s watch.
Lee intercepted the pass, took two meaningful dribbles and lobbed a pass to Harmon, who finished the play with ease and style as the buzzer sounded. The perfect transition bucket put Texas up 20 points going into halftime.
The Longhorns went on to use that first-half advantage to hold off UCLA, 76-65, in Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Head coach Vic Schaefer played just a seven-man rotation against the Bruins at the Players Era Women’s Championship due to injuries, with the trio of junior forward Madison Booker, Harmon and Lee all on the court practically the entire game.
Offensively, Texas thrived through on and off-ball screens in search of midrange shots and open looks. Over the first half, Texas shot 51.4% from the field as Harmon, Booker and Lee outscored the Bruins by eight themselves. The Longhorns earned eight offensive rebounds by halftime, guided by Carlton’s hustle and physicality, and had only turned the ball over once.
However, the Bruins did not go down easily.
UCLA narrowed the deficit to 15 in the third quarter, entering the fourth on a 9-1 run using Texas turnovers and a press that sped up the action.
“The difference in the halves is we had nine turnovers (in) the second half,” Schaefer said postgame. “We only had one in the first half. … The turnovers led to leak-outs and layups that we can’t even defend. We just had some really bad decisions.”
The Longhorns’ lead shrank to 10 within the first moments of the fourth after five straight points from UCLA. It was still a 10-point game with six minutes remaining.
Then UCLA got it within four, capitalizing on the momentum of a 22-3 run to make the score 64-60 as Texas called a timeout with 4:26 left. But that margin was the closest the contest got.
Harmon scored eight of Texas’ final 12 points to put the game away. Converting Texas’ only field goals of the fourth quarter, she ended with 26 points on 60% shooting from the field and went six-for-six from the free-throw line.
“Rori Harmon showed why she’s the best point guard in the country,” Schaefer said. “She wanted the ball when I’m looking out there trying to figure out, ‘Who wants it? We got to get a bucket. We got to make a good decision.’ I thought down the stretch Rori was really special.”
Ultimately, it was a previous weakness that proved to be Texas’ most important strength offensively near the end: free-throw shooting. The Longhorns – who shot 62.5% from the stripe over their first five games – went 16-for-17 on free throws against UCLA, including eight-for-eight in the fourth quarter’s high-pressure moments.
Schaefer was proud of the effort his team produced to withstand UCLA’s run despite the fatigue of heavy minutes.
“(UCLA is) not No. 3 in the country for nothing,” Schaefer said postgame. “I thought our kids were (great) down the stretch. They were great in the huddles. They were very calm. When they cut it to four, we executed, got great shots, made free throws down the stretch. We did the things necessary that a championship team has to do to win in a game like this.”
Now, Texas turns its attention to the Players Era Championship game at 7 p.m. on Thursday, in which it will face Southeastern Conference foe No. 2 South Carolina.
