Birmingham, Alabama – Madison Booker scored 18 points, with first-place seed Texas using its stifling defense to reach the final four of the women’s NCAA tournament for the first time since 2003, beating point guard Haley Vanlis and second TCU 58-47, who traveled well on Monday night.
The Longhorns (35-3) will face the South Carolina defending champions on Friday night in Tampa, Florida.
Texas won the regional final for the first time with four tries under coach Vic Schaefer, who made his last four trips in Mississippi.
The Longhorns’ 35 wins are more than one under Jodicon Ratt, the only national title-winning team in 1986, who was in the stands Monday night and led the Texas to the previous three Final Fours.
Van Liss scored 17 points in the TCU (34-4) college finale, but Texas neutralised Sedona Prince, the star center for the Horn.
TCU never passed the second round of March’s madness, but Van Squirrel helped the horned frog make history for the program, taking the third school to the Elite 8.
Texas offensive dynamo Booker scored 14 points in the second half. Rori Harmon added 13 and 11 points in the first half.
Nothing was easy for Vanlis, Prince and Madison Connor from the high-scoring trio of horned frogs.
Van Lis shot three out of the 15 out of the field, but made 10 out of 11 free throws. The 6-foot-7 Prince attempted only four shots, with Connor scoring nine points.
The Longhorns forced 21 sales, had nine steels and six blocks, but were not pulled away until center Kyra Olcre intercepted Vanlis’ pass and headed out to the coast early in the fourth quarter.
The 6-foot-6 All-Assel was fouled by the Prince, making free throws and energized the 12,175 announced crowds who made a trip to Alabama with Longhorn.
A three-point play marked Texas’ first double digit advance.
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After falling behind by age 14, TCU pulled within six, leaving 2:42 on four straight points from forward Desia Meryl.
The consecutive jumpers from Booker and Harmon brought the Longhorns back ten times, and the horned frog never approached.
Harmon had two steels in the first seven minutes as the Longhorns held the horned frog at just nine points in the opening quarter.
The Longhorns rose nine times before TCU finished the second quarter with a 7-0 run, making it 23-21 in the half.
Aldakre scored nine points in the second half, helping Texas outscore TCU 35-26 after the break.
This was the 57th meeting of former Big 12 enemies and the first meeting in the NCAA Tournament.
Texas moved to the Southeastern Conference this season, 15-1 against the SEC in the regular season, winning the regular season title and earning the SEC Player of the Year with Booker.
