Head coach Vic Schaefer’s team had to wait almost 17 minutes to take its first lead of the game against Missouri on Thursday night. Sophomore guard Jordan Lee hit a three-pointer with 3:11 remaining in the second quarter to put Texas ahead 35-33.
After taking a three-point lead into the halftime break, the Longhorns overwhelmed the hosting Tigers in the second half to win their Southeastern Conference opener 89-71. Now 16–0, No. 2 Texas has matched its best start to a season in a decade.
However, the contest in Columbia did not come without an early-game scare. At the 7:30 mark of the first quarter, Texas found itself down 11-2, forcing Schaefer to take an unexpected timeout. Missouri ultimately began the game six-for-six from the field, four of the makes coming from beyond the arc, putting the Longhorns in a double-digit deficit for the first time this season.
“What (Schaefer) drew on the whiteboard (during the timeout) was a heart, literally a drawing of a heart, because that’s what he was coaching at that moment,” graduate point guard Rori Harmon said postgame. “And I felt like that too, caught myself not going as hard possibly. … I just felt like we were in slow motion at the beginning of the game.”
The Longhorns were able to recover from Missouri’s hot start to reduce the deficit to four heading into the second quarter. They continued to undo the damage that Missouri had caused right from the tip, using the defensive intensity that worked in their favor all season long.
Behind its full-court pressure and active hands, Texas forced 30 turnovers off the Tigers, 19 of them coming from just Missouri junior and graduate guards Lisa Thompson and Saniah Tyler, that turned into 36 points the other direction.
Schaefer’s team wasn’t particularly impressive by its standards in either half-court setting. Especially early, the team struggled at times offensively to break down Missouri’s inside-packed, help-heavy zone look. Defensively, the Longhorns let the Tigers shoot 53.5% from the field and go 12-of-19 specifically from three.
What afforded Texas the upper hand was earning 32 more shot attempts than its opposition, a result of the forced turnovers and 21 points off offensive rebounds. Without those extra chances, Texas would have been “in a world of trouble,” Schaefer said.
“We learned a lesson today in victory,” Schaefer said postgame. “We’re so lucky we didn’t get our butt beat today because Missouri outplayed us a lot of minutes, and that’s a credit to them, and that’s something that I have to wear as a head coach. … We certainly had some nice statistics that you can look at and pat yourself on the back about, but as far as how we played and how we defended and did things the way we like to do them, we weren’t there today.”
Still, at the 3:10 mark of the third quarter, Texas established what became a permanent double-digit lead on a jumper by junior forward Madison Booker.
Booker, who totaled 28 points and 10 rebounds, scored 20 or more points for her fifth time in the last six games. Lee added 23 of her own with five three-pointers for a new season high, and senior guard Ashton Judd contributed 12 in her return to Mizzou Arena.
Next up for the Longhorns is hosting No. 15 Ole Miss on Sunday and Auburn on Jan. 8, with hopes of maintaining their nation-leading active home winning streak. Then will come a stretch of four away games in five contests.
