No. 3 Texas overcame a 12-point deficit in the third quarter, earning a 65-58 victory over No. 5 LSU on Sunday thanks to the fourth quarter. Moody Center spectators are now as ec as the Longhorns have won 21 straight wins at home, 10 consecutive wins overall, and officially moved to the top of the SEC rankings, South Carolina’s fourth-place half-game. did.
This was the fourth consecutive victory over the Longhorns’ top 25 opponents and the third consecutive victory over the top 10 teams. No other program has done this in the regular season since Rutgers in the 2004-05 season.
Just a week ago, Texas confused about dominating South Carolina’s national champions. However, knocking off 2023 champion LSU will require a fierce second half effort.
Texas is using strong defense to overcome the poor shooting
The Longhorns had a terrible offensive start on Sunday for seven of the 37 out of the field (18.9%) in the first half, but more shots began to fall after the break. Madison Booker, Taylor Jones and Lori Harmon scored 38 points for Texas. Booker missed all 11 shot attempts in the first half, but clutched at the foul line and scored a perfect 10 out of 10, including four consecutive times in the final minute of the game.
But the show’s star was the Longhorns’ defense, especially in the fourth quarter. LSU’s 58 points was the second-lowest point for the Tigers this season.
“They play offensive defense with the hard nose,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said after the game.
LSU led the 12 midway through the third quarter, but the Tigers went for almost three minutes without field goals towards the end of the period. Texas then surpassed the LSU 21-9 in fourth. Over those 10 minutes, the Longhorns lockdown defense kept the Tigers a third of the 16 minutes off the field, forcing six turnovers. The consistently contested shots and overall courage ultimately made the difference in Texas.
“Your toughness was on a completely different level in the fourth quarter,” UT coach Vic Schaefer told his team at Huddle Post Game. “It was a brave and brave victory.”
The trio of LSU’s Mikayla Williams, Flau’jae Johnson and Anesah Morrow combined LSU’s 49 points but had to work 19 out of 51 (37.2%) from the field . They had nine of LSU’s 19 turnovers, but they took the ball by far a lot as no other LSU players scored more than three points.
“I don’t know how difficult it would be for that group to guard (along with Frauje, Mikaira and Anesa),” Schaefer said. “We had a few different lineups, but our guys were very strict about protecting them and we never wavered defensively.”
Despite the losses, Moreau still completed his 24th double-double of the season with 15 points and 20 rebounds.
“She’s so good, she had to put five players tomorrow,” Schafer said.
LSU fell 25-2 and 10-2 overall in the SEC. The Tigers are currently 0-2 when they faced their top five opponents this season. Meanwhile, Texas has improved to 26-2 overall and 12-1 in conference play, riding a 10-game winning streak.
