Texas women’s basketball star Madison Booker hauled down the rebound and broke out in a trot until she crossed halfcourt. Then she saw her opening — and shifted gears.
Booker sliced through the paint with a graceful ease, brushed off a pair of Tennessee defenders and flicked a reverse layup off the backboard and into the basket for two of the 26 points she scored in the Longhorns‘ 80-76 victory over the Lady Vols at Moody Center on Thursday night.
The sophomore’s exceptional individual effort helped decide an exceptional basketball game. The 43rd meeting between the Longhorns (19-2, 5-1 SEC) and the Lady Vols (15-4, 3-4) included 15 lead changes, featured high-level shot making and came laced with the type of tension that befits a game between two of the sport’s top programs.
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“Whether you’re at Tennessee or Texas, the standard is the standard, and that’s the standard you get held to,” Longhorns coach Vic Schaefer said. “Good is not acceptable at either place. It’s just not what our people and their people want for women’s basketball.”
Thursday’s clash brought the two programs together at different points in their life cycles. Now in his fifth season in Austin, Schaefer has carried the Longhorns into the top six of the AP Poll in each of the last three seasons. Last year, Texas won 33 games on its way to the Elite Eight. Tennessee, comparatively, is at the start of something new under first-year coach Kim Caldwell, who missed the game due to the birth of her son, Conor Scott Caldwell.
Under Caldwell, the Lady Vols have adopted one of the most intense styles of basketball in the country. Their up-tempo, pressing system meant they attempted more shots than any other Division I team entering Thursday. They’d averaged 13.6 steals per game, too, to rank sixth nationally.
That presented Texas with a unique challenge to tackle. Schaefer’s answer for it, he explained, came in the form of the 6-foot-1 Booker, who’d played point guard last season after Rori Harmon tore her ACL. The Longhorns turned the ball over 12 times in the face of the press — an outcome that pleased Schaefer.
“Both (Booker and Harmon) have such poise and a presence,” he said. “Booker, she’s so tall, she can see over people, and she can see where they come from. And she’s comfortable doing that now. Last year, it was a little bit of a learning process when she got thrown into that point guard spot. But then by February, she was fine with it.”
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With Booker and Harmon neutralizing the Tennessee press, the game developed into a battle between Texas’ interior dominance and the Lady Vols’ perimeter shooting.
Tennessee connected on nine of its 17 3-point attempts, becoming the first team to shoot 50% or better from deep against the Longhorns this season. But Texas found its answer on the glass, where it turned 16 offensive boards into 25 second chance points.
Taylor Jones was responsible for nine of those offensive rebounds — outpacing Tennessee’s team total of seven by herself. Thanks to her efforts, and the Longhorns’ versatility, Texas moved to 17-26 all-time against the Lady Vols.
“We were expecting offensive rebounds (from Jones),” acting Tennessee coach Jenna Burdette said. “We were not expecting nine of them, though. … Our second chance points, 25-5, you’re not going to win.”
Reach Texas Insider David Eckert via email at deckert@gannett.com. Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Get access to all of our best content with this tremendous offer.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: How Texas women’s basketball won latest chapter of Lady Vols rivalry
