“Please welcome back Longhorn legend, head coach of the Panthers, Tai Dillard!” Moody Center’s public address announcer said over the microphone pregame.
Prairie View A&M head coach Tai Dillard has basketball roots in Austin. A player under Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt from 1999 to 2003 on the Forty Acres, Dillard contributed to Texas teams that made four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. In her senior year, she started in 34 games as the Longhorns went 29-6 and made a Final Four run.
On Sunday afternoon, Dillard returned to Austin, this time for the opposition in her first head coaching gig. Dillard’s Prairie View A&M Panthers fell to head coach Vic Schaefer’s Longhorns in blowout fashion 101-42 as Texas earned its 32nd straight win at Moody Center to now have the longest active home winning streak in the country.
The Longhorns moved from the Frank Erwin Center — where Dillard played in her time — to the state-of-the-art arena ahead of the 2022-23 season and, after Sunday’s win, hold a 57-5 all-time record on their current home court.
“The Moody Center is a beautiful venue. I’m really happy for the University and that the players get to leave their legacy here,” Dillard said postgame. “I do miss the Erwin Center, but it’s always great to come back and see familiar faces. I saw my coach, Coach Conradt … and (got to meet) a bunch of other fans that used to come out and watch when I played many moons ago, back in the early 2000s.”
Dillard’s Panthers did not pose the most difficult of tests for Texas, coming into the contest at 2-5. But now 10-0 with eight of the wins coming at home, the Longhorns continue to show why Moody is one of the toughest places to play in all of women’s college basketball.
Texas failed to display its most polished brand of basketball in the first half, shooting just 36.8% from the field. Still, to bring a 15-point lead into halftime, the Longhorns rooted their performance in a ruthlessness defined by full-court pressure to cause turnovers, converting offensive rebounds into second-chance-point opportunities. They executed this through a fast-paced, movement-centric offense to create high-quality looks.
Those aspects of their game then became crucial to the Longhorns’ eruption coming out of the break. In the third, Texas outscored Prairie View A&M 32-7.
The Longhorns forced five turnovers off the Panthers, turning them into 11 points the other way, and brought down six offensive rebounds to secure extra opportunities. While holding Prairie Valley A&M to 15.8% from the field, Texas improved to 58.3% shooting, getting 24 of its third-quarter points in the paint. Junior forward Breya Cunningham led that effort, contributing 12 points in the third and finishing with a game- and career-high of 30.
Senior center Kyla Oldacre added 17 of her own off the bench to give Texas notable production from both of its bigs. Oldacre and Cunningham got some time on the court together, collaborating for an offensive style Schaefer described as “volleyball” due to the two passing each other the ball up and over defenders.
“This is the first time that we’ve played at the same time, so I think it’s just learning how to pass to each other, learning where we’re supposed to be in certain plays,” Cunningham said about playing with Oldacre postgame. “We both only know the five in certain plays, but just learning how to play together, I think that’s gonna be really fun.”
The Longhorns built on their third-quarter effort in the fourth with a scoreboard margin of 29-10, reaching 100 points for the fourth time this season. Postgame, graduate guard Rori Harmon, who tallied 10 assists with no turnovers against the Panthers, emphasized the importance of her team showing its relentless identity no matter who it plays.
“I think when you practice it in-game and (during) practice, it’ll just come to second nature,” Harmon said. “It’ll be like a habit that we fall back on when we start playing these SEC teams. It’s our identity. So if we’re not living up to that, it’s not a good day. But just really happy that our team was able to pick it up and show that that is our identity as well.”
This upcoming week, Texas heads on two road trips across the Lone Star State, first to the Rio Grande Valley and then to Fort Worth to take on the Baylor Bears. Schaefer’s team is now under a month away from opening its conference campaign.
